The hospitality and adjacent communities are very tight-knit, resulting in an overlap of business and pleasure. The feelings of closeness to those we work with are strong and real, but where is the boundary between work and play? What happens to our understanding of intimacy when everyone we work with and have ever worked with is considered a friend? How does the subscription to the idea of "work family" impact our ability to set boundaries?
In this seminar, we'll discuss the challenges that come with working in a business that relies on the exploitation of relationships, why it happens, and what we can do to change it.
Joanna Carpenter
(she/her)
DE&I Consultant & Artist
Joanna Carpenter is a New York City-based Asian-American 17-year veteran of the hospitality industry. Her work and advocacy has been seen in the New York Times, Seven-Fifty Daily, NPR, Thirsty Magazine, and others; she has presented for Tales of the Cocktail, Bar Convent Brooklyn, Healthy Pour, and others. Joanna works as an artist as well as an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion consultant across the hospitality and entertainment sectors.
Instagram: @thejoannac
DJ Watson, LMFT
(he/him)
Education Director, Support Staff
Therapist, Pinnacle Counseling Chicago
DJ Watson is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) whose clinical work includes couples/family conflict, social and cultural stressors, anxiety, depression, trauma, and meaning making. He works with families and individuals from diverse sexual orientations, ethnicities, cultures, and religious backgrounds. DJ is also the Education Director for Support Staff. He received his B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Central Arkansas, and earned his M.A. (with honors) in Marriage and Family Therapy from Northeastern Illinois University. He also has six years experience as a bartender in Chicago, and has worked as a college student advisor.
Instagram: @dj_the_therapist
Laura Kelton
(she/her)
Founder, Support Staff
Louisiana native Laura Kelton (she/her) definitely didn’t expect to find herself creating a career-path in the food and beverage industry. Despite the fact that she grew up in the South where hospitality is a point of pride, she adamantly told her family “she never wanted to work in food service” but the tables quickly turned. Taking a host position that she originally approached as a means to an end while she was studying Mass Communication in Chattanooga, TN, she began to embrace the chaos of the industry and quickly found herself enamored with it. Seeking to further develop her role in the beverage industry, she moved to Chicago, IL where she continued to climb her way up the ranks, working everywhere from Bordel to Bad Hunter before eventually landing at the beloved industry bar, Sportsman’s Club. What she didn’t realize was that in pursuit of expanding her career she quickly lost herself in the rat race of trying to be the best. She stepped away from the bar to take a break, explore her options in the world of sales and establish Support Staff, but quickly realized that there is no place that felt quite like “home” other than being in a restaurant. Returning to the hospitality industry, she went to work with a like-minded team at Mundano that hoped to keep the safety and wellness of their staff first, but quickly shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the course of her career she has tried to foster the mindset that taking care of your employees’ and guest’s emotional and physical wellbeing is of utmost importance when your focus is on the concept of “hospitality.” Having lost friends and regulars to suicide and substance use, forming Support Staff has been an incredibly important step forward in helping to sustain our industry from both sides of the bar.
Instagram: @lakelton @pleasehustleresponsibly
Ariel Coplan
(he/his)
Co-Founder, Not 9 to 5
From a young age, Ariel Coplan has had a love affair with the food and beverage industry. Early in his career, Ariel worked around the world in renowned restaurants. He later brought his knowledge and experience back to Toronto and opened the now-closed, Thoroughbred Food & Drink. Opening his own restaurant taught him many valuable lessons. The most important, mental health. He was determined to create change and began to have thoughtful discussions focused around mental health with his old friend, Hassel Aviles. Together, they launched Not 9 to 5 in 2018. Ariel has since taken the steps to return to restaurants full time to continue to practice implementing healthier systems into the food and beverage industry.
Through lived experience, Ariel went through a metamorphosis of questioning the status quo of, "oui chef" mentality and depression. But he empowered himself to change, make improvements and dismantle the destructive nature of the industry.
Instagram: @ariel.coplan