For nearly twenty years I've worked in the nonprofit sector, and across that time I've come back to the same belief: that helping someone figure out their working life, or their learning life, or who they want to become, is one of the most human things one person can do for anotherA. It's sitting with somebody, taking them seriously, and not rushing. It's about trusting that they are the author of their own life, and that the work is to be a good companion while they figure out what they want to write.
My commitment to making a difference in the lives of others is in my blood. Growing up, I watched my paternal (Albert) and maternal (Doris and Bill) grandparents give back to their communities in ways big and small. It was their shared example that taught me about the responsibility I have to make the world a better place than when I arrived. As a high school senior, I first entered public service as a candidate for the Ulster County Legislature. While I lost that election, it helped me realize that my call to service was not in an elected capacity, but in a manner that could promote change through community-based programming.
While completing my undergraduate degree at the University at Albany, I started working for the New York State Dental FoundationB in Albany, first as an intern and then as a full-time employee focused on supporting the Foundation's outreach and education initiatives. It was during my tenure as an intern that my career took its first life-changing shift as I recognized how we as individuals have the power to change systems. Attending a health literacy conference in Lake George, I met a social worker who shared some of the challenges her clients living with HIV/AIDS were experiencing in accessing oral health care. I returned to Albany focused on doing what I could to address this social injustice, which ultimately led to planning and launching a global summit (2008) in New York City. It brought together leaders from across the political spectrum (we hosted health advisors to Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush), and led in turn to the single largest training of oral health professionals on the implementation of rapid HIV testing in the dental setting (2009).
From there I moved to Marist College, and then to PowerMyLearning, back when it was still called Computers for Youth. In 2012 I joined QSACC, a nonprofit in New York City serving people with autism and developmental disabilities, where I spent nearly fourteen years in progressively senior roles. At QSAC, I worked closely with the executive team on developing new initiatives, including a self-advocacy group for autistic adults, a specialized transition program for youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and Mission Market, a storefront where adults build the skills their employment goals require in a community setting.
Along the way I taught political science as an adjunct at St. Francis CollegeD in Brooklyn: metropolitan politics through a comparative lens, and state and local government. It's still one of the experiences I draw on most.
People, and especially people with disabilities, deserve career services designed around them, not around the funding streams that reimburse the work.
I founded Lincoln Square CoachingE in 2021, and in 2025 I left QSAC to run it full-time. Since then I have worked to extend that impact by launching The GroveF, an initiative of Big Apple Coaching that facilitates meaningful social engagement rooted in lifelong learning.
My doctoral researchG comes from many of the same questions that have followed me through this work. How do organizations shape what people come to believe is possible in their working lives? What happens when a worker's way of thinking, feeling, or being falls outside what a workplace treats as normal? And what conditions allow someone not just to find a job, but to build a career on their own terms?
I live in New York City with my husband Will and our Maltese, Vincent. I'm the proud uncle to four incredible young people: Willow, Rhodes, Patrick, and Jack, who inspire me to continue asking questions that help make the world a better place for them and others.
If you'd like to get in touch, LinkedIn is the best place.
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