LaTosha Kerley, a Nashville-based HR government, is utilizing her voice {and professional} expertise to raise the significance of resilience, lived expertise, and human-centered management in in the present day’s workforce.
NASHVILLE, TN — Kerley is looking for a extra expansive and lifelike understanding of what expertise and management appear to be, significantly for professionals whose careers haven’t adopted a standard or uninterrupted path. Drawing from her personal journey, she emphasizes that progress, adaptability, and perseverance are sometimes stronger indicators of management potential than completely linear resumes.
Kerley brings years of expertise in human assets, worker relations, and organizational management. Her perspective is knowledgeable not solely by formal coaching, however by navigating skilled setbacks, reinvention, and the tasks many adults carry each inside and outdoors the office.
“Folks don’t arrive at work as clean slates,” Kerley says. “They convey their full lives, their challenges, and their progress with them. When leaders acknowledge that, they construct stronger, extra sustainable organizations.”
Workforce information displays this shift. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics experiences {that a} majority of American employees expertise non-linear profession paths, together with profession adjustments, breaks, and reentry into the workforce. Grownup learners now characterize a good portion of graduate-level enrollment nationwide, signaling that training and profession development are more and more taking place later and in numerous levels of life.
“For a very long time, success was outlined by one slender mannequin,” Kerley notes. “However actual management is formed over time by expertise, reflection, and persistence—not by a flawless timeline.”
Kerley’s personal path displays that actuality. Regardless of going through vital private {and professional} obstacles, she remained dedicated to progress and training. Whereas working and elevating her youngsters, she went on to earn a grasp’s diploma in Human Useful resource Administration, constructing her profession by perseverance, self-discipline, and a people-first management method.
“I didn’t observe a standard timeline,” she says. “However I by no means stopped pushing ahead or believing in what was doable.”
Her advocacy focuses much less on formal coverage and extra on consciousness—encouraging leaders to look at how assumptions about training, profession gaps, or private circumstances form hiring, promotion, and growth selections.
Analysis helps her message. Research from Harvard Enterprise Evaluate and Deloitte persistently present that inclusive, human-centered cultures outperform friends in engagement, retention, and long-term efficiency.
“Retention isn’t solely about pay or titles,” Kerley says. “It’s about being revered and understood. Folks keep the place they really feel seen.”
She additionally highlights the realities many professionals handle exterior of labor, together with caregiving, parenting, and sophisticated household tasks. Acknowledging these dimensions, she believes, is crucial to trendy management.
“Life doesn’t pause when the workday begins,” she says. “Efficient leaders perceive that and lead accordingly.”
Somewhat than positioning herself because the face of a single marketing campaign, Kerley goals to spark reflection and dialog—inviting leaders and professionals alike to rethink how they outline credibility, success, and potential.
“My story isn’t distinctive,” she says. “It’s merely trustworthy. And there are numerous individuals whose paths appear to be mine.”
Name to Motion
Kerley encourages leaders and professionals to replicate on how they consider expertise and management, to problem assumptions about profession timelines, and to create area for conversations that normalize non-linear progress, resilience, and second probabilities.
About LaTosha Kerley
LaTosha Kerley is a Nashville-based human assets government with a grasp’s diploma in Human Useful resource Administration from Strayer College. Her work facilities on HR management, employment issues, and organizational tradition. She is thought for a people-centered, experience-informed method to management and workforce growth

