Biosketch

Paul Wesselmann makes his home in Madison, Wisconsin where he operates his speaking and training company Stone Soup Seminars. Each Monday morning, Paul distributes an inspirational email, Ripples, that offers inspiration and practical motivation to over 20,000 subscribers around the country. Paul holds degrees in psychology and higher education and in addition to his work on several college campuses, his adventures include having been a support group facilitator, volunteer coordinator, radio talk show host, and his college mascot.

Biography

Paul earned a B.A. in psychology from McKendree College where he was a resident assistant, programming board chair, student government officer, and the school mascot. He completed his M.A. in college student personnel from Bowling Green State University while interning first at Heidelberg College as Assistant Director of Residential Life and then as Coordinator of BGSU's Student Wellness Program. He also worked with Owens Corning Fiberglas to develop an outcomes assessment tool for their alcohol/drug treatment program and was honored by BGSU's faculty and students as the 1991 CSP Graduate Student of the Year.

Paul ventured to Wisconsin to accept a position at Beloit College as Assistant Director of Residential Life & Assistant Director of Summer Conferences. His next stop was the University of Wisconsin - Madison where he worked as a Residence Life Coordinator. He also began volunteering at Madison's AIDS Network as a source of emotional support for people living with HIV/AIDS. Paul was eventually recruited to join AIDS Network's management team as Director of Volunteer Services where he developed a pool of several hundred active volunteers.

Since 1990, Paul has been presenting conference workshops and designing staff training for a variety of organizations in the private and public sector. He gradually began receiving requests to deliver keynote addresses and in 1997 transformed Stone Soup Seminars from a part-time hobby into a full-time career. He currently works with 80 clients a year around the U.S. (and a few stops in Canada!) with audiences ranging in size from a dozen to several thousand.

In 1999, Paul created Ripples, an inspirational Monday morning email that transformed into The Ripples Project, an organization with over 20,000 members whose mission is to encourage small waves of kindness.