Sheryl Raphael Whitaker

About Sheryl Raphael Whitaker

• Sheryl Raphael Whitaker, MBA, is a Leadership Transformation Expert and best-selling author of It Starts with Joy: The Inner Shift that Changes Everything. As Founder & CEO of EdenAnthony LLC, she helps executives, teams, organizations, and growth-minded individuals move from disconnection and overload to clarity, authenticity, and unshakeable joy through her JoyShift™ method, the It Starts with Joy framework, and her leadership philosophy, Joy is my COO™.
• She is the host of It Starts with Joy — LIVE, a weekly live show exploring the human side of leadership through candid conversation and real-world insight.
• Sheryl’s conviction that leadership begins with protecting joy started when she was six, after a teacher wrongly accused her of breaking a purple crayon and dismissed her classmates’ defense.
• As the only child in class who looked like her, bused into the district with her sister, the moment was more than a false accusation it was a mark of being “less than.”
• That early experience, explored in It Starts with Joy, became a touchstone for her work helping leaders safeguard the dignity and humanity of those they lead.
• Her corporate journey includes senior leadership roles at State Farm, AutoOne Insurance, AIG, and USAA, where she led enterprise learning transformation for 37,000+ employees.