I define leadership as a way of carrying oneself, managing teams, mentoring, as well as the official positions one has held. Strong leadership, to me, is about clear communication, a good deal of empathy, a strong understanding of goals and creating flexible systems and structures that empower us to accomplish more together than we can individually. Being an educator is a core part of my identity and leadership style. I really enjoy being in the lead, but I’m also happy to work collaboratively when a lead has been established.

I write this somewhat light-heartedly but jokes aside, this has felt like part of my job description for most of my career. I’ve found organizations, brands and individuals deal with a lot of complex emotions as change around their offerings arise. Even well-intentioned, much needed, exciting change can come with some fear of the unknown (organization wide or individually) that needs to be acknowledged before it is managed.

You’ll find me a calm, clear-headed, strategic voice in the midst of most chaos.

When working in this capacity I have either been the principal designer, created brand identity systems from scratch and rolled them out to global teams, overseen a team of designers, given creative direction, art directed photoshoots and created all material prior to the shoot including shot lists and pre-pro books and been on set depending on the type and scale of project being worked on.

Was brought in as a consultant to work either as the principal designer or given creative ownership to oversee a team on a project.

I have spoken at a number of organizations both in the US and abroad including Creative Mornings, Creative Mornings Field Trips, Peak Year, The Pratt Institute, The Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture, NYU and more. Topics I enjoy speaking about: Design, Branding, Community, Culture, Leadership, Transition and transformation at work, A Real Look at the Career Journey, The “Soft Skills” we need in our work, How Teaching informs Design Practice, Diversity and Inclusion and more.

I have created the curriculum for my courses, conducted classes both online and in person. I’ve taught High School level Design, Undergraduate level Design, Undergraduate level Innovations in Marketing courses as well as workshops in the field of design, design thinking, branding, photography and marketing. I was also previously the Director of Design thinking at Peak Year in New York.

When needed, I’ve led accounts including being the key client contact, managing client expectations, working on creative briefs, establishing timelines, presenting work with and without an extended team, implementing feedback and working on all the day to day aspects of running an account. Building and maintaining relationships is an aspect of this role I have loved.

I’ve acted as the project manager in addition to being an account lead when needed on larger projects. This included establishing timelines, aligning internal and external expectations, organizing the internal and client team, creating and adding to briefs and creating project plans from start to finish. Organizing projects and understanding how we get from A to B together is an aspect of this role that I truly enjoy.