What advice would you give your younger self?
Embrace your high energy nerd vibe … later in life, it helps me juggle a lot of big responsibilities, travel with ease around time zones and be approachable so that people can be at ease with me while we go after big, ambitious goals together.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
The biggest risks I’ve taken have been career leaps, which oftentimes meant leaving a job where I was happy and comfortable and challenging myself to be even more ambitious and pursue opportunities that would help me continue to grow. Oftentimes it meant more travel, larger scope and more responsibility, just as I was growing my family and needs at home increased. Fortunately, I’ve learned to build a support system to help me balance my priorities. And as we all have heard … with high risk comes high rewards, and taking these leaps in my career has allowed me to work for purposeful brands with enormous cultural significance.
If you weren’t doing your current job, what would you be doing and why?
Building community and nurturing relationships are core to who I am as a person, at work and home. So I imagine in an alternative life I’m more active in business and school boards and maybe even own a small business … I have been known to share dreams of using my morning-person energy as a breakfast cafe owner.
What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks?
The last two years have led to a higher awareness of the speed bumps and constant juggling of work/life priorities that people experience in the workforce. I hope we can continue building on these learnings and offer flexibility whenever possible. Specifically for women with families, flexible working arrangements, asynchronous team collaboration and working from home have been critical in helping us manage our priorities and accomplish our goals.
