I’ve always had a passion for writing and enthusiasm for helping my peers and teens achieve their goals. This led me to pursue a career in education with a middles grades ELA teaching license and a Mass Communications degree from Towson University. Makes sense right? Wrong.

As I journeyed in my career, I realized that I desired to pursue something more creative. I longed to use creativity to improve approaches to problem-solving, increase opportunities for personal growth/development and amplify individuality. I cared about doing this for the students I was responsible for, the coworkers I collaborated with and myself.

So, throughout my nine year career in education, I went from teaching ELA, to becoming a Partnerships Coordinator at a non-profit, to becoming a Dean of Students, to an ELA consultant for a school district. Across all of these roles, I discovered a few key takeaways:

• Communicating clearly, concisely and consistently (whether written or verbal) is not a crime.

• The baseline of collaboration begins at understanding.

• The best strategies always start with the end in mind.

• Remain reflective, teachable, and resilient.

I know what you’re thinking, “So, what does she do exactly and how does she apply it to her work?”