My journey to human sustainability

My journey to human sustainability (HS) started when I was a child because I have always been interested in people and ways to improve people’s lives. I tried to understand the reasons some individuals were happier than others in their families, with their friends and at school. As I got older, I was so interested in people, groups of people, and ways to improve society that I decided to study Sociology for my first university degree at Syracuse University, New York. While I was learning about all sociological theories and practices as a university student I realised the importance of communication, and more specifically of a “two way communication.” Thus, I decided to study communication between the organization and the other organizations, its publics, and pursued a Master of Science in public relations at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, New York. I earned both degrees with distinction.

My university education provided me with a significant background to start a very successful managerial career in sales at different roles and levels such as sales manager, sales executive and sales consultant in the promotions area. Therefore, I collaborated with international companies as an employee and/or collaborator and provided service to clients of all sizes in the retail sector (i.e., supermarket chains at the national level) increasing considerably their sales. This meant that I regularly worked together with professionals from all roles and functions, from the owner, to the general manager, to the sales director, the advertising and marketing directors, the store managers and all employees. This was a unique experience and for 15 years I gained an incredible amount of knowledge and practice in the field which also helped me to successfully manage my own commercial activity from 2001 to 2015 selling my products to both individuals and organizations.

Among the various issues I learned from this lengthy management experience was that often employees are neither happy nor satisfied with their working lives which also affected their personal lives. Consequently, as a sociologist and communicator with a great interest in people and society, I felt the need to focus my work in exploring that issue of sustainability which evolved to focus on human sustainability. In doing so, I asked myself the question “Is this a sustainable way for employees of living and working?” To answer this question, I decided to change career and continue to undertake research at the PhD level. Therefore, I applied to UK universities with my own proposal on sustainability, awarded a full scholarship from the College of Social Sciences (University of Glasgow) and pursued a doctorate of Philosophy in Management entitled "Human sustainability, relational coordination and worker outcomes" which I finished in 2020.

Consequently, since 2021, I am an Adjunct in Management at the Adam Smith Business School (University of Glasgow), teach and develop my PhD thesis in such a way to publish articles. I have recently published the article entitled "Human sustainability training and job satisfaction in organisations" in April 2025 at the excellent journal Sustainable Development. Inclusivity is directly related to human sustainability so I decided to study for a post-graduate certificate in Inclusive Education and completed all required modules which were at the Master's level at the School of Education (University of Glasgow). At this stage of my journey to HS it is important to reach a greater audience, all of you managers in organizations, who deal daily with HS issues and problems. In this way HS will grow to become a social movement. The goal of this website is to support this social movement of HS and to create a dialogue and advance HS in organizations which is of significant need and importance. So, as you can see, my journey to HS continues but from now on I know that I am not alone anymore because I hope that all of you managers join me in this journey so we can make a difference together to sustain employees and rehumanize organizations. The journey to HS will help our organizations not only to survive but to thrive.

Key take away for managers: I am inviting you to join me at my human sustainability (HS) journey so together we can enhance HS in practice, business and public policy, sustain employees and rehumanize organizations.