About

Alto Group, LLC was founded by longtime collaborators Jennifer Freyd, PhD and Alec Smidt, PhD.

Freyd & Smidt partner with organizations to reduce institutional betrayal and replace it with institutional courage to empower organizations with research-based solutions.

Freyd and Smidt are experts on how employees relate and interact with their companies and organizations. They combine expertise from academic research and consulting for some of the world’s most prestigious organizations – including Fortune 100 technology companies, The White House and members of the United States Congress, Lean In, and Ivy League universities – to build more effective and successful organizations.

Relevant Expertise

Particularly relevant to our client’s needs is our expertise in effective, supportive responses to sexual harassment or other potentially traumatic experiences.

EXPERIENCE

Jennifer Freyd and Alec Smidt have over 40 years of experience researching how individuals and employees interact with organizations regarding sexual harassment and other harms.

INNOVATION

Freyd created the field of psychology that studies institutional betrayal (unsupportive, harmful, and inadequate responses from organizations when people, like employees, discuss or report sexual harassment or other harmful experiences) and institutional courage (effective, supportive, responses to sexual harassment or other harms).

PARTNERSHIPS

Freyd has partnered with organizations such as Lean In (founded by Sheryl Sandberg) and the American Psychological Association to create guides and best practice references on how to provide trauma-informed responses to sexual harassment in the workplace.