Human Side Up: How empathy drives business success with Tonya Eggspuehler & Jeremy Bouman

Tonya Eggspuehler is the Vice President of Organizational Development and Total Rewards at Union Pacific Railroad. Jeremy Bouman is the founder and CEO of RISE, a Nebraska-based nonprofit dedicated to supporting the reentry process for justice-impacted individuals and their families. Together, they’re shaping what it means to create inclusive workplaces where second chances aren’t just possible, they’re powerful.


CLARA Founder & CEO Natasha Nuytten sat down with Tonya and Jeremy to explore the partnership between Union Pacific and RISE. Their work shows what can happen when empathy, structure, and accountability come together to create opportunities for people who are too often shut out of traditional employment paths. The conversation also challenges business leaders to rethink inclusion, not just in terms of race or gender, but through the lens of lived experience, resilience, and human potential.

Leading with empathy and collaboration

Both Tonya and Jeremy lead from a place of humility and compassion, but neither of them mistake empathy for softness. They’re clear that it takes rigor, intention, and a willingness to listen deeply to lead change.

“I would say for me, compassion is a big part of what drives me,” Jeremy shares. “Getting proximate to the challenges that we have in the community requires this compassion and empathy.”

Tonya echoes that sentiment from inside the corporate space. “Nothing gets done by one person, and we always have a better product when we’re collaborating across the organization,” she says. “If I find myself talking too much, that’s a problem as a leader… you need to listen more than you talk.”

|For both, listening is the starting point, not the end game, for effective leadership.

Reentry as a business imperative

Jeremy is direct about the systemic hurdles facing justice-impacted individuals and the opportunity that presents to forward-thinking employers:

“We always say reentry is crisis,” he explains. “There’s 800 industries that categorically will not hire you if you have a felony background… and then there’s the stigma of incarceration, the invisible handcuffs people wear every day.”

For people coming home from incarceration, that stigma often compounds with a lack of access to housing, transportation, and even basic items like boots or a phone. “You get a hundred dollars when you leave prison, and, you know, good luck.”

Tonya shares how Union Pacific approached these barriers thoughtfully and systemically. “What I tell people is it’s a journey,” she says. “You have to make sure your leaders are on board and supportive… and look internally at your policies and procedures.”

Redesigning the hiring process

When Union Pacific launched its second-chance hiring program in 2021, it didn’t just open the doors, it reexamined the hinges.

“Blanket exclusions in background checks don’t serve anyone,” Tonya says. “The judicial system has deemed that they have completed their time… and you have to make sure, in order to make even our communities safer, that you understand the impact of poverty and recidivism.”

Jeremy emphasizes the importance of going slow and getting educated. “I think there’s a lot of employers that don’t know what they can or can’t ask,” he says. “So we really try to have discussions around a value proposition: if you hire one of our program graduates, this is somebody who did a really hard, rigorous six-month pre-release program.”

Union Pacific also created internal systems to ensure fairness. “If something does flag, we have a panel that talks with that individual,” Tonya explains. “That inclusivity starts in the hiring process, not just once hired.”

Investing in ongoing development

Hiring someone is just the start. At both RISE and Union Pacific, long-term success depends on what happens next.

Jeremy describes how RISE stays connected post-hire: “When [an employer] hires one of our grads, they hire us. That employee has a reentry navigator who’s likely also been system-impacted… If there’s challenges, we can help diagnose what’s happening.”

Meanwhile, Union Pacific ensures continued growth through training and education. “We offer free college courses to all of our employees,” Tonya shares. “They can learn English, pursue a degree, or just build skills. We also provide steel-toed boots for new hires now—that used to be a barrier.”

These aren’t perks, they’re practical ways to support success and retention.

Culture change from the inside out

Stigma can’t be solved with a single hire. Both leaders emphasize the importance of preparing organizational culture for change.

“We did provide sensitivity training first and foremost,” Tonya says. “Then we did a company-wide session focused on second chances… the facts and myths, what it is and what it isn’t.”

That openness makes all the difference. “Our population coming home… they’re the hardest workers you’re going to find,” Jeremy says. “They will go through a wall for these opportunities. But if those opportunities are taken away, that creates hopelessness.”

For Jeremy, the ask is simple but powerful: “Really, truly give them that opportunity. And if you do, they should be treated just like everybody else.”

To hear more from Tonya Eggspuehler and Jeremy Bouman on leadership, reentry, and building inclusive systems that work, for people and for business, watch the latest episode of Human Side Up here.