About
Ryan S. Gallik
Managing Partner of The Mental Hygiene Project® & Founder of Traummunicate™/Situational Traummunication™.
Ryan S. Gallik is an award-winning international speaker, trainer, and business consultant who is passionate about life, people, and travel, all while living his motto: enhancing humanity and being an ambassador of hope.
As Managing Partner of The Mental Hygiene Project®, Ryan is dedicated to helping organizations develop a ready and resilient workforce. His WHY is to create connections between leaders and their teams through empathy, fostering atmospheres where every person feels empowered to contribute and become their personal and professional best.
Ryan's Mission
Ryan's expertise is deeply personal. As a middle school student, he witnessed a horrific act of gun violence, an event that shaped his understanding of trauma and its long-lasting impact. Later, as a retired firefighter and paramedic with nearly 20 years of service, he saw firsthand how trauma affects individuals, teams, and entire organizations. These experiences fuel his mission: helping leaders bring clarity, connection, and purpose to those they lead.
His work focus
Ryan, his business partner, and their team have developed award-winning content and a scientifically validated training program on resilience, optimism, and hope. His work focuses on:
Healthy Leadership – Leadership that prioritizes employee health and well-being.
Trauma-Informed Leadership – Helping leaders recognize and avoid re-traumatization.
Traummunicate™ – A structured approach to trauma-informed communication.
Situational Traummunication™ – An emotional intelligence tool that helps leaders adapt their communication [traummunication™] and approach each team member’s needs, fostering trust and growth.
Psychological Empowerment™ – A scientifically validated program unlocking resilience, optimism, and hope.
Ryan Gallik: Transforming Leadership Through Traummunication™
A published author (Silent Mayday), Ryan is also a former board member for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and a former Adjunct Professor at Valencia College. His expertise has benefited organizations such as Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, Wyoming Bar Association, United States Tennis Association (USTA), University of Central Florida, Borough of Manhattan Community College, County of Miami-Dade, and many more.
His signature concept, Traummunication™ and Situational Traummunication™ is transforming how leaders engage with their workforce, bridging the gap between leadership and human connection.
Ryan’s guiding principle is simple: “The more diverse people you lead, the more you have to traummunicate™”.
“The more diverse the people you lead, the more you have to traummunicate™.”
Ryan Gallik
“To genuinely care for employees, first invest in leaders; healthy leadership is the heart of true organizational wellness.”
Ryan Gallik
Michael l. stahl
Managing Partner–The Mental Hygiene Project
Michael L. Stahl is an accomplished and dynamic professional speaker, CEO group facilitator, and business consultant who has delivered over 2,500 speeches, seminars, and training programs in the past 25+ years. He owns his private business consulting firm and is the Managing Partner of The Mental Hygiene Project®. Michael is a master trainer for the Harrison Assessment® Behavioral Traits Profile and has done over a thousand individual psychological analyses and debriefs worldwide. He understands how stress affects performance at every level in organizations and works to provide leaders with the tools they need to engage in “healthy leadership”. Michael is an alumnus of Oklahoma State University, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Marketing and has experienced how business results converge with mental health.
A recipient of the prestigious Horatio Alger Scholarship for Distinguished Americans, Michael is also an eight-year volunteer for the association to help disadvantaged young people overcome obstacles, achieve total wellness, and accomplish their goals. A certified black belt in Tae Kwon Do, Michael has learned to use focus and mindfulness to enhance mental health and live with more personal and professional balance.
About Michael l. stahl
As a performance assessment specialist, he has worked with companies of all sizes, from rapid growth to Fortune 500. From individual coaching to team strategy, he has utilized an understanding of behavioral traits and tendencies to define challenges and eliminate the sources of recurring problems. Michael has worked with clients in 38 US states and 14 countries. He has been a regular guest writer for the online edition of the Orlando Business Journal and has also written for magazines like Entrepreneurial Edge and Marketplace. He is the former managing editor of Business Solutions Magazine. He has written extensively on leadership and inspired performance and is the author of the Focus Your Power series of manuals to enhance personal development and business success. He also contributed to the best-selling book 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life and has appeared on CNN Financial News discussing avoiding and overcoming burnout. Michael has been married for 30 years and has a 27-year-old son and a 23-year-old daughter. He resides in Orlando, FL, loves the Pittsburgh Steelers, and travels frequently to work with clients domestically and abroad.
Dr. Shannon Taylor, Ph.D.
Director of Research and Learning
Dr. Shannon Taylor, Ph.D., is our Director of Research and Learning and holds the prestigious position of Horton Endowed Professor of Business Ethics at the University of Central Florida College of Business Administration. With a distinguished career marked by academic excellence and groundbreaking contributions, Dr. Taylor helps us drive evidence-based practices to our clients. As a prolific scholar, Shannon has significantly enriched our body of knowledge through numerous technical papers and factsheets, which include but are not limited to.
Technical Papers
The Science of Resilience
The Science and Practice of Happiness
Leading for Health
Fact Sheets
Attachment Theory
Attachment Theory & Burnout
Emotional Intelligence and Trauma-Informed Leadership
Cultural Intelligence
Psychological Safety
Crisis Management
Communication
Dr. Shannon Taylor
One of Dr. Taylor’s most notable achievements working with us is serving as the principal investigator for the validation of our award-winning program on mental resilience. He has given more than 50 presentations at international conferences, published in leading journals in management and applied psychology, and had his work featured by the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CBS This Morning, Fox News, NPR, and the BBC. Active in the business community, Dr. Taylor consults for public, private, and non-profit organizations in the healthcare, communications, construction, retail, and hospitality industries. He is also a contributor to the Harvard Business Review. Shannon and his wife Laura live in Orlando, FL with their two children.
Dr. Steve Jex, Ph.D
Strategic Advisor on Workplace Well-Being
Steve M. Jex (Ph.D. 1988, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, University of South Florida) is a retired professor of Psychology at the University of Central Florida. Prior to joining the faculty at UCF in 2017, he held faculty positions at Central Michigan University, the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, and Bowling Green State University. He has also held guest scientist appointments with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and Walter Reed Army Institute for Research (WRAIR). For the past 34 years, most of his research has investigated the impact of individual differences on employee responses to stressors in the workplace. He has also investigated aging and retirement issues and, more recently, how employees balance chronic health conditions with work demands. Dr. Jex is the author of over 100 journal articles, book chapters, and three books, including Stress and Job Performance, Organizational Psychology, and Organizational Behavior: Evidenced-Based Lessons for Creating Sustainable Organizations and Thriving Under Stress: Harnessing the demands of The Workplace. While Steve enjoys being semi-retired, he still runs his employee health and wellbeing laboratory at the University of Central Florida.
Claudia Swonger, M.A., LMHC
Strategic Advisor on Mental Health
Claudia Swonger, M.A., is a bilingual (English and Spanish) Licensed Mental health counselor with over 19 years of experience in the Mental Health Field. Claudia has worked in various settings such as offices, homes, and hospitals, where she has helped children, adolescents, and adults recover from mental illness. She has received CBT, TF-CBT, Motivational Interviewing, and Adoption Competency training.
Her current role is that of Community Outreach Associate at Advanced Recovery Systems, LLC where she continues to advocate, educate, and connect those in need of mental health services. Claudia is a former board member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and served as the Secretary and was on the Executive Committee. She is passionate about advocating, normalizing, and educating on the topic of mental health.
Claudia resides in Orlando, Florida, with her husband, Tom, and three boys, Thomas, Vaughn, and Phoenix.
Ready to Ignite Your Potential? Let’s Connect!
Join us on this journey of resilience, where every moment is an opportunity to inspire and impact lives—one spark of brilliance at a time. Now, it’s your turn to embrace your potential and shine.