Business Women Awards 2025
ACHIEVEMENT HONOREE:
Rebecca Twitchell, Half Full LLC founder and president
FOR THOSE WHO THINK showing vulnerability is an unusual business strategy, Rebecca Twitchell would like a word.
Twitchell launched Half Full LLC, a Providence-based workplace consulting firm, 20 years ago. She and two partners recognized that companies needed help with their long-range goals, supporting their employees and overcoming obstacles in a positive way.
“As partners, we understood that we’re people before professionals and we’ll prioritize each other that way,” she said. “I lost my mom as we were discussing opening the business and we all supported each other as we were facing challenges.”
Working with consultants and facilitators, the staff of six runs sessions ranging from team building and leadership to culture, organizational development and overseeing retreats.
Coaching employees to achieve their goals while their company thrives is Half Full’s ultimate mission.
“We’ve always been a ‘people-before-professional’ company, helping individuals understand their unique talents and strengths so they can move forward,” Twitchell said.
Twitchell’s father, a pastor, moved the family to Smith Hill to continue his work with the United Presbyterian Church on Chalkstone Avenue. Her mother was a watercolor artist who sold her work across the country.
Twitchell was also shaped by symbrachydactyly syndrome, a rare congenital condition in which some or all the fingers may be underdeveloped or not developed at all, resulting in short fingers that may be webbed or joined. Twitchell, though, during a youth retreat began dealing with her disability when she was surrounded by others also feeling insecure about themselves.
After graduating from Syracuse University, she worked in Washington, D.C., and San Diego within health care, and marketing and planning. Soon after, she returned to Rhode Island and launched Half Full in January 2005.
Twitchell says her company achieved 25% growth in the last five years. Today, Half Full has more than 70 local, national and international clients, including Amica Mutual Insurance Co. and International Game Technology PLC, spanning technology, health care, insurance, nonprofits and social service agencies.
“When I tell my story about my disability, and also how I lost my parents [when they were] in their 60s when we were in the early growth stages at Half Full, people stop and listen,” Twitchell said. “They relate. They start to let go of their assumptions of others.”
