Susan Olesek (Oh-LESS-ik) is an unapologetic idealist, a human potentialist in passionate pursuit of what is possible for people. As a consultant, Susan has facilitated Fortune 500 clients in the work of self-development for over a decade.

It was an opportune visit to a Texas prison that changed the trajectory of her life forever. In 2012 she founded the Enneagram Prison Project (EPP), a burgeoning nonprofit headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, offering self-awareness education and self-regulation training — on both sides of the bars — to those locked up in our criminal justice system, and to those running it. EPP is now offered from San Quentin to prisons in Minnesota, Belgium, and the UK.

Ultimately, Susan has a vision for changing the prison system — from one of punishment to a place of genuine healing. Susan believes wholeheartedly in anyone who’s willing to take an honest look at themselves to make deep and lasting changes starting from the inside out. 

 Jessica Lawler spent the first 12 years of her life battling extreme physical and emotional abuse which prompted her to take her deadening heart to the streets where she had to rely entirely on herself for survival. The violence continued as she began committing armed robbery and ended up in juvenile hall by 14 years old. She used drugs and alcohol to numb her pain. Fighting her charges and looking at some serious time, in 2016 Jessica signed up for Enneagram Prison Project’s pilot program for women in the local jail. At that time, with the compassionate help of EPP Guides, Jessica courageously began to unpack her torturous childhood, finally connecting dots between not just what she was doing that led to her incarceration, but more importantly, the reasons why. An Enneagram Type 8 known as “The Protector/Challenger,” Jessica realized how she unconsciously sought protection and respect by being strong and powerful and hiding her own vulnerability. She recognized her habits of seeing a world that was hard and unjust, where only the strong would survive.

Jessica was sentenced to five years in state prison which she served and was recently released in February of 2019. She is an EPP Ambassador in training where she has a life coach and has already begun speaking on behalf of EPP to places like high schools and at Google. Her dream is to help EPP to realize its vision of bringing this work to every prison and jail in the world. Jessica is currently working for Goodwill and getting her life back on track while committing to staying out of jail/prison by continuing her Enneagram work with self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-compassion.

A Type One “Idealist,” Sue Lambert spent the better part of the last seven years trying to make amends for going down a self-destructive, perfectionistic path of gambling, drinking, addiction, and embezzlement which landed her with a 3-year jail sentence in a heap of rage and shame. In 2016 Sue signed up for Enneagram Prison Project’s pilot program for women in the local jail where, with the compassionate help of EPP Guides, she courageously began to unpack her torturous childhood, finally connecting the dots between not just what she was doing that led up to her incarceration, but more importantly, the reasons why.

Released early after serving 13 months, over the next two years Sue Lambert began her Enneagram certification with The Narrative Enneagram, became the EPP Ambassador Liaison and facilitated weekly meetings for the Santa Clara County Resource Center. She became a Job Developer for a non-profit organization, Center for Employment Opportunities, (CEO) where she won a national award for her work in placing formerly incarcerated applicants in jobs. And, Sue became the first EPP Ambassador to return to San Francisco jail to deliver EPP programs a an EPP Guide.

Through a twist in the legal system, despite her exemplary work during reentry, in February 2019 Sue was forced to return to prison to complete the final portion of her sentence in Federal Prison where she remains in custody today and is due to be released by September 2019.

Dr. Greenwald is a clinical forensic psychologist. She is the Chief of Mental Health in a maximum security prison which houses one of the largest correctional mental health programs in the state and one of the largest correctional mental health programs in the nation.  She began her doctoral career in the Federal Bureau of Prisons where she provided individual and group treatment to incarcerated federal prisoners and was trained in hostage negotiation.

In 2003 she began working in state corrections and rehabilitation as a Psychologist providing individual and group therapy and crisis intervention in a correctional center. There she created therapeutic programs that helped create lasting change for inmate patients. Through the years she has promoted to Sr. Psychologist Supervisor, Chief Psychologist and then Chief of Mental Health at a maximum security prison. In each capacity she has helped to create treatment advances in patient care and rehabilitation.

Dr. Greenwald also speaks at conferences as an expert in correctional mental health, has been a court appointed forensic evaluator and court expert and has served as an Adjunct Professor. She is committed to rehabilitation efforts in corrections through strength and skills based programming and finds the greatest fulfillment in the positive transformations of systems and people.