My story
The beginning
At university, I studied Economics alongside English literature. I was puzzled about why I was drawn to such different topics: logical, mathematical theories about how systems work on one side, and deep explorations of the human condition on the other. Only much later would I realize how closely connected they were.
I began my career as a management consultant, specializing in people, change, and organizational consulting. I later held strategic HR roles in large corporate organizations. From early on, I wanted to do more. An American expat in the UK in my early consulting days, I launched a pen-pal program to connect Associates across the US and the UK. I was told not to, to focus on client work. I did it anyway, and it grew — to over 700 participants in six territories. My team? All young people, early in their careers, who were driven to make a difference. This experience showed me what young people could do and lit the fire in me to empower them further.
This work eventually led me to the 2015 One Young World Summit, where I saw young people from around the world dedicating their passion and skills to solving societal challenges. I became an early member of the Circle of Intrapreneurs, a global movement supporting social intrapreneurs within organizations. I built chapters in New York City and later, after relocating to Switzerland, across Europe. I helped shape the Circle’s strategy and later served on its board. During my last corporate role, I brought this intrapreneurial work in-house — co-founding a grassroots movement focused on empowering newer generations, advocating for intergenerational inclusion, and creating the world we want to see for future generations.
I began to notice a pattern while collaborating with brilliant and passionate changemakers within and outside of large organizations: they would pour so much of themselves into their work that it became difficult to sustain. I saw people burn out, walk away, or lose the spark that drove them in the first place. I felt the strain myself.
And then I became a mother. Through this profound redefining of myself and my priorities, I walked away too — from my corporate role, and from the intrapreneurial work I had poured myself into. I sought a way of working that let me show up for my family as I wanted. And I yearned to focus my time on the changemakers I'd come to know, admire, and respect, helping them to keep going without sacrificing or losing themselves along the way.
“I began to notice a pattern… they would pour so much of themselves into their work that it became difficult to sustain. I saw people burn out, walk away, or lose the spark that drove them in the first place. I felt the strain myself.”
The shift
My first months outside of the corporate world offered a time of discovery. For the first time in years, I had space to lift my head up, to explore new things. I read. I took courses. Having found real benefit from being coached myself, I trained intensively as a coach. I immersed myself in early parenthood, which turned out to be its own kind of curriculum. And as much as I learned, I found myself unlearning, too — questioning the systems, the assumptions, and the relentless pace that had driven me for so long. Examining my own values, blind spots, and the beliefs I’d never thought to question.
I began to understand something new about changemakers, too: the patterns that exhaust us — the urgency, the grind, the drive for productivity and perfection — don’t just take a personal toll. They can reproduce the extractive logic of the systems we’re trying to transform. Even with the best of intentions, we can end up reinforcing what we set out to dismantle in the first place.
It was here that something began to click that had been waiting since my student days: the systems we build are expressions of human consciousness. They reflect our assumptions, our blind spots, our fears, our values. You cannot truly change one without attending to the other.
I started to learn that to truly support changemakers, something more is needed than tools and tactics for navigating the existing system. It’s also about slowing down, looking inward, and questioning what’s underneath it all. Becoming more conscious. More present. More connected to the very nature of what it means to be human.
“The patterns that exhaust us don’t just take a personal toll. They can reproduce the extractive logic of the systems we’re trying to transform.”
Today
Today, I work with changemakers — including intrapreneurs within the corporate world and social entrepreneurs driving impact in their communities and beyond — who feel the pressure to act fast and carry everything, and who sense that this way of working is neither sustainable nor truly effective.
My work creates the space for them to lift their heads up: to reconnect with themselves, to see systems more clearly, and to act with greater intention. Again and again, I’ve seen that when people slow down in the right ways, the impact they’re seeking becomes not only more sustainable for them, it becomes stronger.
As a coach and academic at heart, I draw on my training, my ongoing learning, and my own humanity to guide clients in exploring for themselves. I also bring all of this — together with years of my own building experience — into the design of programs and systems that support changemakers. Not for the sprint, but for the long haul. And not just for us. For the generations we’re raising today, and those who will follow.
“The systems we build are expressions of human consciousness. You cannot truly change one without attending to the other.”