Since launching her firm in 1992, Jamie and Ivy Sea have helped a wide variety of organizations and enterprise leaders sort through the vision for and pathways to conscious enterprise, organizational transformation, and effective (and mindful) communication. Ivy Sea has worked with for-profit and nonprofit organizations, solopreneurs and large corporations, well-known and unknown companies, and visionary and traditional enterprises.

Prior to starting her own business in 1992, Jamie helped establish Virginia's Superfund Community Relations Program for the Commonwealth’s Department of Waste Management. When she joined VDWM, the community-relations program didn't exist; when she left, she had established a highly regarded program with outreach to more than forty cleanup communities. After three and one-half years, the program director said that, through her diligent and effective efforts, Jamie had "helped make Superfund hazardous waste cleanups a non-issue in Virginia."

In the earlier years of her career, Jamie held marketing-communications roles with a San Francisco environmental consulting firm and a Los Angeles cosmetics manufacturer, was an aide on the legislative staffs of California Assemblywoman Lucy Killea and New York State Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink, and held a guest-relations stint with a New York Holiday Inn (Exit 1, I-84). She is a past-president of the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (SF/IABC), and is a member of several professional associations.

Jamie is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief for Ivy Sea's award-winning public-service website, Ivy Sea Online Center for Conscious Enterprise, and the author of Big Vision, Small Business: 4 Keys to Success Without Growing Big (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco). Review more information about Big Vision.

Since 1981, Jamie has participated in both formal and "in the trenches" education in business, management, coaching, facilitation, change leadership, crisis communication, media relations, public participation, and interpersonal and organizational communication. She is graduate of St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, and now lives in San Francisco, California, with her husband Tom and their two cats, Uri and Josephine.

Review a more detailed bio of Jamie and her work

E-mail Jamie directly at jwalters@ivysea.com.

Just about everyone and everything. That said, there are several events and people who have had a greater influence on me than others, to be sure. My ancestors and my immediate family, the stories I grew up seeing and hearing, my spiritual upbringing, my husband, a teacher here and there, Father Charles Lavery, who was the past-president and chancellor of the university I attended and became a significant mentor and spiritual adviser for me. The list could continue. They're all part of who I am right now.

What do you find most challenging about your livelihood?

There are lots of challenges that come up weekly, if not daily, in my roles as an author, business owner, mentor and consultant. For example, owning a small enterprise during a period of extended economic and cultural volatility – that's a challenge – as is staying on top of an avalanche of information. And then there's fitting in time for reflection, visioning and writing, while attending to the myriad details of running the business and living my life. It's the test that never ends; an ongoing lesson in humility, adaptability, faith and fortitude.

Most rewarding?

Every day has blessings and rewards. Finding ways to meet challenges, and then passing along the learnings to help someone else out a bit. Times when my work – whether it be business or personal – has inspired or helped people improve the quality of their work and lives somehow.

If you could pursue any other profession, what would you do?

Owning a business is like having the livelihood variety pack, since mine includes consulting, writing, speaking and being a mystic of sorts. I always keep things in evolutionary mode, so I’m satisfied with and continuously challenged by my livelihood and professional opportunities.

What’s the one item you have on your person most of the time?

Aside from articles of clothing, it’s a tie between mints and lip balm. I rarely go anywhere without them. And I'm always wearing my wedding ring – it's the same one that my grandmother wore during her sixty years of marriage to Grandpa. Pretty cool.

If you were a non-human object/being, what would you be?

In the physical world, I’d be water. It’s fluid, gets around and into just about everything, and keeps right on flowing. I adore water. I could watch it and listen to it for hours, and sometimes do just that. I have a fountain in the office, and CDs of water sounds.

Share some of your favorite quotations.

"If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well." ~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid." ~ Wolfgang von Goethe

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment." ~ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world." ~ Oscar Wilde

What type of person do you get along with the best?

I get along with most people. For the ones whom I find a challenge, see my pet peeves!

Name your biggest pet peeves.

When people are cruel or chronically inconsiderate. Those are among the few things I don't care to tolerate. And the fact that our democracy – which I cherish – is becoming a plutocracy. That's a growing pet peeve.

What’s the one question you’d like definitely answered?

Just one? Okay, here’s one: "Why do we still call our elected representatives 'public servants' when, more and more, they seem to serve no one but themselves and their wealthy pals?"

What was one of your favorite games as a child?

Robinson Crusoe. I’d disappear into the hills for hours to explore, and hang out in this great tree that overlooked the valley. I think I spent half of my childhood covered in dirt and tree sap, communing with Nature.

What’s your favorite comfort-food meal?

Pasta and cheese in any of its renditions – mac-and-cheese, alfredo, ravioli, etc. Or a really good hot turkey open-faced sandwich with stuffing and a ton of turkey-mushroom gravy. Obviously, I don't give a whit about fat content when I'm going for comfort! And then there's homemade chicken soup. Bring it on.

What are you currently reading?

Each morning, I read something consistent with my spiritual practice, to get my day off to a right-minded and right-hearted start. At the office, I'm scanning a crop of new releases on inspired livelihood, coaching, leadership and conscious enterprise; as well as my routine web- and journal-scanning. In my "home reading" category, I've just finished reading Jane Eyre (again) by Emile Bronte, and have Dumas' Queen Margot and Gregg Braden's Isaiah Effect on my "up next" list. What are you reading?

"Walters is a prophet of an emerging new economy of intelligent, caring, cutting edge entrepreneurs who seek to make a living — not a killing. Big Vision, Small Business is a must-read for all who believe that business can and should be fun, life serving, and human-scale." — David C. Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World; former faculty, Harvard Business School; and board chair, Positive Futures Network, Seattle, WA

"As the title of her book (Big Vision, Small Business) would imply, Jamie Walters is ambi-talented: She is extremely gifted at the art of visioning while remaining attentive to detail. Creative and resourceful, Jamie brings wit and grace to everything she does." — Maggie Oman Shannon, Author, Founder of The New Story, and Ivy Sea Network Collaborator, San Francisco, CA

"I’ve known and admired Jamie Walters for many years. Her brainchild, Ivy Sea, along with her unique perspectives and insights, provide the fuel for our continuing dialogue on progressive organizations and the requisite communications strategies that will bring them to fruition. As an organizational psychology scholar, I eagerly anticipate my encounters with Jamie to share her latest visionary observations." — T.Q., Senior Consultant, PG&E, CA

"Through Ivy Sea, Jamie provides companies and individuals with considerable resources to grow and mature in the business world. I have gained so much insight from Big Vision, Small Business. It has supported me through transitions as I've developed a number of enterprises. It’s with confidence that I recommend Jamie." — L.F., Artist, Arts Instructor and Workshop Leader, Oakland, CA

"Jamie Walters is a wonderful and brilliant woman — an entrepreneurial visionary — wisely focused, inspirational, calm and infectiously motivational. She regularly challenges my notions, educates my methods and opens my ears. You can't walk away from a conversation with her without experiencing re-energized clarity and feeling compelled to rethink some key part of your process. She is an entrepreneurial wizard." — S.T, Enterprise Owner, Ivy Sea Visioning Program alumna, and Ivy Sea Network Collaborator, Oakland, CA

"When you’re running a business, you spend all your time putting out fires. Jamie was able to pull us away from the day to day and get us to look at the bigger picture. Now the biggest "fire" is not always the client that is yelling the loudest, but the things that promote our larger goals." — P.R., Founder and COO, and Ivy Sea Visioning Program alumni, Berkeley, CA

"Where can a business owner go when the sleepless nights set in? Do what we did, and contact Ivy Sea, an enlightened, empowering organization that God designed just for us! Timely, practical, thoughtful advice, at the touch of a button. Thank you, Jamie Walters!" — K.B., Co-Founder and Partner, Boise, Idaho

"Ivy Sea stepped into a complex scenario requiring a multipronged strategy to communicate with diverse and large groups during a major change process. Ivy Sea quickly learned our message and strategy, and helped develop and implement a communications plan, helping to avoid icebergs and titanic reactions. Thank you Ivy Sea!" — C.W., PharmD, Kaiser Permanente California

More from Ivy Sea clients

Jamie's media interviews and links