MY NOT-SO-TRADITIONAL backSTORY

Since an early age I was a creative bookworm with a vivid imagination and a strong independent streak—an an honor student with a mohawk taking art classes on the weekend. At 16, I left high school and worked and lived in Boston for a year. As impatient as I was to get out into the world, between you and me, I was in over my head. Fate intervened and I found Simon’s Rock at Bard College—a cohort learning environment that fostered critical thinking and ideation, designed specifically for (restless and rebellious) high school age students.

At 20, I moved cross-country to San Francisco and for the next 7 years dove into creative and collaborative projects that included DIY ‘riot girl’ film projects, performance art event production, and LGBTQ+ social activism. Mostly an adventure with a few misadventures for sure.

In the mid-90’s, I joined The Body Shop US, where my career really started. In 1999, I moved into the marketing department as a visual merchandising coordinator. By 2004, I was leading the visual operations team for the US-Americas. This 5-year acceleration was incredibly exciting, at times challenging to navigate, and where I first experienced real mentorship.

I learned a lot about myself both personally and professionally—including struggling with and learning to manage no-joke workaholism. I often draw upon lessons and insights from this experience when coaching newer professionals early in their career. During this same chapter, I had the opportunity to earn a master's in leadership theory which had significant impact on me and choices I made since in my career and life.

I continued working in luxe beauty for the next 10 years, coaching and mentoring emerging leaders and building high-performing teams. This included 6 pivotal years at Kiehl’s and L’Oreal, which brought me from the west coast to NYC where I had the opportunity to co-design and facilitate the new manager on-boarding summits, pilot leadership development programs, and collaborate more and more with human resources and education teams. These experiences ultimately sparked my decision to pivot and lean fully into coaching and leadership development as my all-in professional pursuit and to launch my own practice in 2015.

I absolutely love what I do, and couldn’t be happier about the decision to go all in with my practice. My path has been a bit tumultuous at times, including some pretty challenging chapters in my teens and mid-20s, and later experiencing devastating loss in 2012 that forever changed my view on what truly matters, the result has been greater perspective, resilience, and empathy. And, thankfully, my life has been equally fueled by adventure, love and community, and opportunities to do work that makes a real impact. I am driven and a bit intense by nature. My family thankfully reminds to pause. At least briefly. In all candor, I feel like I am just getting started.