ABOUT
Meet Wendy Norwood Pierce
I have never been able to separate learning from life.
How we learn, respond, relate, protect, grow, and change are all connected.
That connection is where my work has always lived.
For nearly three decades, I have worked with people in the places where something is asking to be understood more clearly: a child, a pattern, a relationship, a classroom, a decision, a family, a way of being.
Upvolved grew from that work.
From years of noticing what helps people see differently, respond differently, and change what becomes possible.
My Story
I did not come to this work from theory alone.
I came to it through life. Through teaching, parenting, rebuilding, paying attention, and learning what people need when things are not simple.
I’m a mum of two sons, a lifelong question-asker, and someone who has always been a little obsessed with how things change. People, homes, gardens, classrooms, ideas, old patterns, stuck rooms, tired systems. I love the moment when something that felt heavy starts to open.
I have also learned a lot by wandering around. Literally and otherwise. I have crossed countries by bike, raced mountain bikes, taught in different parts of the world, followed ideas down ridiculous little side roads, and collected the kind of life lessons that do not always arrive politely. I call it learning by wandering around. LBWA. Affectionately, my favourite initials.
The people I am most grateful for are the ones who showed up when life was not tidy. They did not arrive with grand speeches or perfect answers. They stayed close enough to be useful, honest enough to be trusted, and kind enough to make the next bit feel possible. That shaped me. It is also why I care so much about this work. I like humans. I like their oddness, courage, contradictions, brilliance, and the way they keep going.
Upvolved grew from that: a life of noticing, a love of change, and the belief that we are not meant to do the important parts alone.
Learning is never just learning.
It is confidence, pressure, safety, timing, relationship, and the way a person has learned to get through. My work is to understand the person in front of me and find what helps them move.
The Lens I Use
Most things make more sense when we stop looking at them on their own.
A behaviour sits inside a context.
A pattern has a history.
A response usually has a reason.
A person is rarely only what they are showing on the surface.
The work is to understand what is connected, so we are not just reacting to the loudest part.
Why I Started Upvolved
I started Upvolved because I saw a need for real partnership.
People are trying.
Parents, teachers, leaders, adults, children.
Most people are doing the best they can with what they know, what they have, and what they are carrying.
Sometimes what changes things is not more advice or another strategy.
It is having someone sit beside the situation, look at it differently, and help make sense of what is already there.
That is what humans are built for.
Not doing it all alone.
“Working with Wendy was like being handed a flashlight inside a cave I didn't know I was in.”
She never told me what to do. She asked questions, noticed things I hadn't, and somehow helped me find my own way through. I came in feeling completely stuck. I left understanding myself differently, and that changed far more than I expected.
–Lilah A., WriterWhat Shapes My Work
My work has never fit neatly into one box.
My work has been shaped by nearly three decades in education, family partnership, advocacy, writing, speaking, and practical work with children, adults, schools, and communities.
It draws from learning, psychology, literacy, creativity, trauma-informed practice, systems thinking, and lived experience.
Not as separate boxes.
As connected ways of understanding people, patterns, and possibility.
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I hold a Master’s in Educational Psychology, with a focus on cognition and creativity, and a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education.
My training includes structured literacy, multisensory learning, executive functioning, trauma-informed practice, social-emotional development, creativity, culturally responsive education, and systems-based thinking.
This includes training in Orton-Gillingham, Spalding, Lindamood-Bell, Slingerland Multisensory, Columbia University Reading and Writing Project, Circle of Courage, and Basadur creative problem-solving.
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I have worked across Australia, Japan, and the United States with children, families, educators, schools, and communities.
My experience includes classroom teaching, higher education teaching, curriculum design, family consulting, parent and partner workshops, teacher workshops, school partnerships, and advocacy work.
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I have written seventeen accredited graduate-level courses for teachers, including courses on creativity, engagement, executive functioning, brain-based learning, trauma-informed practice, culturally responsive education, wellbeing, and teacher wellbeing.
I have presented at professional learning events and conferences, including the World Conference on Transformative Education in Cape Town, Pacific Rim Conference in Honolulu through the Community Inclusion Project, the Oregon Early Learning Conference, and the Teacher Academy at Eastern Oregon University.
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As a Court Appointed Special Advocate, I supported children moving through complex legal, family, and emotional systems.
I also look closely at the practical pieces around people: the spaces, routines, expectations, language, and patterns shaping daily life.
Sometimes what helps is not adding more.
It is changing the setup around the person.
“A few years later, my son asked, ‘Do you think Wendy would talk to me again?’”
When we first met Wendy, my son was nine. He was bright, anxious, and had completely shut down at school. He didn't trust adults, and the last thing he wanted was another person asking him how he felt.
Somehow, Wendy met him exactly where he was. She never tried to change who he was. She helped us understand him, and over time I watched him begin to understand himself too.
Years later, when the move to high school became overwhelming, he turned to me and asked, "Do you think Wendy would talk to me again?" . That moment said more than I ever could. The impact of those early conversations stayed with him long after they ended.
–Tara W. MotherI believe people are capable of far more than they sometimes believe about themselves.
My hope is that Upvolved becomes a place where they feel understood, discover what's possible, and leave with a stronger sense of who they are.
That's work worth doing.