Blaze Founder & CEO, Justin Lyons, welcomes Larry Morrissey.  Larry and his wife have 4 wonderful children ranging in age from 6 to 20.  Larry was the mayor of Rockford, IL from 2005 to 2017. With nearly 150,000 residents, Rockford is the largest city in Illinois outside of the Chicago metro area. Prior to being mayor for 12 years, Larry ran and lost an election to be mayor in 2001.  He discusses his resilience to run in 2004 (and win!) as a combination of two critical factors: how he overcame family adversity both as a child and a parent; and his ability to establish a clear vision, passion and sense of purpose towards transforming the lives of all Rockford residents. Topics discussed include: Humanizing our most disadvantaged citizens; transforming your adversities into purpose-driven missions; the power of empathy in politics; key characteristics to being resilient; structural inequity in our cities;  what an alcoholism recovery program can teach us about redemption, spirituality and optimism;  how we can’t let excellence and achievement be defined by an educational system that fails to personalize learning to the individual child.