About Human Flourishing
A non-partisan civic movement for honest inquiry into the science and philosophy of human flourishing.
Why We Exist
We know more than ever about what helps human beings thrive.
Researchers are measuring flourishing across cultures and across generations. Psychology, medicine, economics, sociology, and public health keep adding to the picture, and the wisdom traditions have been asking what makes a good life for thousands of years. The field is rich, growing, and still unfinished.
The harder questions begin where that knowledge meets the world people actually live in.
What allows people to flourish, in families, communities, economies, institutions, and cultures, and what do freedom, security, belonging, prosperity, and good governance ask of one another?
And the question underneath that one: can we investigate it honestly with people who see it differently?
That is where Human Flourishing begins.
The Question We Couldn’t Leave Alone
Scott McIntosh and Angela McIllece arrived here from very different places.
Scott spent decades as an entrepreneur, building companies, helping grow the Conscious Capitalism movement, and traveling widely enough to see poverty up close rather than on a page.
Angela spent thirty years as a military spouse, moving more than twenty times across cultures. She raised young children in New Delhi, empty-nested in Bogotá, and discovered along the way that America itself holds more distinct cultures than most people ever get to see.
Both had seen the same thing from different angles: people flourishing in conditions the developed world would call impossible, and people miserable despite every material advantage. That is hard to explain if our account of flourishing stops at the individual.
Both eventually found their way to Arizona and to the Heroic movement, drawn by its mission of helping individuals flourish, rooted in ancient wisdom and behavioral science and aimed at the audacious goal of 51% of humanity flourishing by 2051. They lived the work. They believed in it. They still do.
But the lens kept widening. If we are learning what helps one person flourish, what makes those conditions possible for most of humanity? What do families, economies, institutions, and cultures have to get right?
Serious researchers and practitioners were already at work on many of these questions, from different disciplines, with different methods, reaching different conclusions. What Scott and Angela saw was the need for a place where the best of that work could be brought into sustained public inquiry, across disciplines, experiences, and political traditions, so that all of us could see more clearly.
What We Are Building
Human Flourishing exists to follow the evidence, widen the conversation, and help people take part in it.
The Seven Pillars give the inquiry its structure, bringing the individual into conversation with relationships, economics, governance, culture, wisdom, and science.
The Practice of Dialogue gives us a way to engage those questions with conviction and curiosity in the same room, and to treat disagreement as a chance to see something we missed.
Our essays bring serious ideas into public view. Our Circles and gatherings give people places to engage them together. And the Pledge asks each of us to begin with the choice closest at hand: how we will meet one another when the questions get difficult.
The goal is not agreement. It is a culture capable of asking better questions, following evidence wherever it leads, and acting with greater agency, hope, and optimism because of what we discover together.
Where We Stand
Following evidence across those lines takes a discipline, and we have written it down. Human Flourishing writes in two modes: stands, where the evidence is strong enough to carry a position, and open questions, held open with the same confidence. Some essays are signed, and speak for their author rather than the organization. The full architecture — including what we mean when we say the evidence carries a stand — is here: → Where We Stand, and What We’re Still Asking
Scott McIntosh
Co-Founder · Chairman / CEO
Co-Founder, MAC6
Co-Founder, Conscious Capitalism Arizona
Scott is an engineer-turned-entrepreneur who built McIntosh Engineering to $50 million in revenue before co-founding MAC6, an entrepreneurial community in Tempe, Arizona. He co-founded Conscious Capitalism Arizona — the third chapter globally — and was among the earliest investors and advocates for Heroic Public Benefit Corporation. A certified Positive Intelligence coach and longtime student of Stoic philosophy, Scott writes and speaks about human flourishing, free enterprise, and why the two belong in the same conversation.
Angela McIllece
Co-Founder · President / COO
Founder, Soul Force Strategies
Angela is a creative strategist, coach, and designer, and the founder of Soul Force Strategies — where she works with individuals and organizations on the move from clear identity to intentional action. As a military spouse for thirty years, she moved more than twenty times across cultures and continents. Those years shaped a conviction she still holds: human flourishing is both universal and beautifully particular in how it shows up.
Meet the Board
Jason Viyar
Human Flourishing Board Member
Jason Viyar is a workshop facilitator, angel investor, and Human Flourishing board member whose work explores what makes a life feel truly rich. During 12 years of military service, his commitment to investing in others earned him honors including Soldier of the Year. Today, he leads flourishing programs across corporate, nonprofit, and educational settings. Jason holds a Master of Applied Positive Psychology and is pursuing doctoral studies at Columbia University. His upcoming book, The Psychological Millionaire, examines wealth through the lens of relationships, meaning, appreciation, and a life well lived.
Adam Lugsch-Tehle
Human Flourishing Board Member
Adam P. Lugsch-Tehle is a seasoned existential and lifestyle coach and systemic leadership consultant with over 20 years of experience across communications, education, leadership development, and executive coaching. He holds a degree in Honors Philosophy and an MAT in teaching. He is founder of The Liminal Leadership Institute, a leadership and development agency taking responsibility to nurture a sense of belonging and true identity in the systems they steward, in service to the unity of humanity. Adam also serves on the Human Flourishing board and supports families affected by substance use disorders through partnership and nonprofit work.
