Ray Coppola

Ray Coppola's work begins with education. He holds master's degrees in Psychology and in Education and a bachelor's degree in Literature, a pairing that joins the study of how people think with the study of how they tell their stories. He taught for twelve years, including children with intellectual disabilities, and he regards that time in the classroom as the foundation for his later work in personal development and publishing. That combination of psychology, education, and literature gives his writing its particular range. It attends to the mind, to the ways people learn, and to the language they use to make sense of their lives, which is why his work moves so easily between personal development, publishing, and business. Each field is another way of asking how people change.

His commitment to others extended beyond the school day. Ray was named New York City's Big Brother of the Year, a recognition that, in his account, came from raising more money for the organization than any other Big Brother. It was an early demonstration of a belief that shapes his later work: that sustained effort on behalf of other people can change what a community believes is possible.

That commitment to people with disabilities carried into publishing. Ray founded and created We magazine, a publication dedicated to people with disabilities. He also recalls an invitation from President Bill Clinton to the White House, in connection with the signing of disability-related legislation.

Ray spent part of his career inside corporations, working for four different companies and building a practice in corporate consulting and business turnaround. The accomplishment he points to most often is Chemical Engineering Progress. By his account, the publication had operated at a loss for roughly twenty years, and he turned it into a profitable operation within a single year. He counts it among his most significant professional achievements.

Alongside his professional work, Ray has delivered lectures and undertaken counseling and healing-oriented work, drawn by the same question that runs through his teaching, publishing, and consulting: what allows a person to grow?

Seen together, the record is unusual: a teacher of children with intellectual disabilities, a publisher serving the disability community, and a consultant who turned around a publication's long run of losses. The settings change, but the thread does not. In each, Ray has paid close attention to human potential and to the practical means of realizing it. That attention is the root of Outrageous Thinking.

Biographical details on this page reflect Ray's own recollection and are being confirmed against independent records.