ABOUT CHL
Built for the Next Era of Leadership.
The Center for Hopeful Leadership is a national think-and-do tank dedicated to transforming organizational culture through the Science of Hope.
WHY HOPE
It’s Time for a Different Strategy
The Center for Hopeful Leadership honors the foundational scholarship of C. R. Snyder, whose life’s work demonstrated that hope is not a luxury — it is a human necessity. We build on his legacy by translating decades of psychological research into practical tools, frameworks, and structures that help organizations and communities thrive.
Our work is grounded in The Psychology of Hope (Snyder, 1994) and the broader field of Positive Psychology, including the contributions of Martin Seligman, Fred Luthans, Chan Hellman, and others who have advanced our understanding of the conditions required for people to remain whole while they do hard things with persistent excellence.
WHO WE ARE
Our Foundation
The Center for Hopeful Leadership (CHL) is envisioned as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit think-and-do tank dedicated to establishing the science of hope as the premier framework for organizational strategy and leadership development. The organization will bridge antiquated management models and evidence-based Hope Theory through research, education, leadership development, coaching, strategic planning, evaluation, and organizational design.
Mission
To advance the science and practice of hope through original research, leader development, organizational innovation, and community partnerships.
Vision
A world where hopeful leadership is not a rare quality of exceptional individuals—but a shared organizational capability embedded in how institutions operate, hire, and grow.
North Star
Transform leadership practice and organizational design through research, education, leader development, and public impact.
OUR STORY
Hope as a Leadership Practice.
CHL grew from a simple but urgent observation: many mission-driven organizations are still organized around fear, scarcity, hierarchy, and control. These approaches do not bring out the best in people—and they are not necessary to achieve excellent outcomes.
Founder Jess K. Lewis spent more than 25 years in youth-serving public institutions and nonprofit organizations. Across systems, they saw talented people leave when their knowledge, voice, and purpose were undervalued. They also saw what becomes possible when people are trusted to identify meaningful goals, create multiple pathways forward, and act with agency.
That insight became the foundation for the Center for Hopeful Leadership.
OUR MODEL
The Think-and-Do Tank Model
CHL doesn’t just study leadership. We build it. We implement it. We refine it.
The Think Tank
The Think Tank develops research, publications, assessments, and open-source frameworks to advance leadership practice for the next generation.
The Do Tank
The Do Tank implements those ideas through consulting, facilitation, coaching, strategic planning, evaluation, and organizational design.
OUR FRAMEWORK
We Make Hope Operational.
Grounded in C. R. Snyder’s Hope Theory, the Hopeful Leadership Framework builds organizational capacity in three connected areas:
Goals
Identify targets that are meaningful, clear, equitable, and connected to mission.
Pathways
Create multiple routes forward, especially when obstacles make the first route impossible.
Agency
Cultivate the belief, energy, and shared responsibility to take the next meaningful step.
OUR FOUNDER
Jess K. Lewis
Founder & Executive Director
Jess holds a BA in Social Welfare, an MPA, and an Ed.S. in Organizational Leadership. Their career spans youth development, organizational strategy, evaluation, fundraising, culture building, and public systems.
Jess is an expanded developer of the Hope-Based Leadership framework—translating C. R. Snyder’s cognitive science into the lived reality of organizational psychology and daily operations.
Jess founded CHL to help leaders create organizations where people contribute fully, young people lead meaningfully, and equity is embedded in how work gets done.
HOW WE LEAD
Values-driven workplace: We are unapologetically anti-racist. We support self-care, speaking the truth, challenging norms, and showing up authentically in every space.
Flat structure: Every expert earns the same salary—we value a person’s contribution, not their title.
Open-source framework: We believe our work should benefit anyone who wants to lead hopeful organizations. Knowledge is free. Services are paid.
Fully remote office: While in-person services are available, being fully remote enables us to serve the nation with a lean, nimble team.