My Path to Coaching and Creativity

I have had a career in global public health. I realized that my favorite parts of my jobs were connected to what I offer as coaching and training services now. I have a PhD in Maternal and Child Health and a Master’s Degree in Public Health (MPH) as well as 25+ years of experience working and living in other countries while evaluating health and nutrition programs.

Coaching has helped me to grow as an individual, to identify solutions to various challenges in my work and life, and to become more effective at what I do. It has also helped me navigate my choice to work with individuals and teams outside of a traditional workplace setting. I’m using my skills to help others expand their own horizons and to find balance and fulfillment in their lives.

I have leaned into my creativity at various stages of my life beginning as an Art Major in college, and more recently with my exploration of the Zentangle method. Being a creative visual artist is part of my identity.

How Coaching Expands My Horizons

I love working closely with individuals and teams, and leading trainings and workshops. I am known as someone with a trove of fun interactive ideas for workshops. My public health career has included working in academics, government, foundations, non-profits, and private companies in the US and throughout the world. I also worked as a birth doula and gained insight through close connections with women and families as they experienced a transitional and intense time in their lives. I bring my experience from all these various settings to my work with clients.

How My Creativity Flourishes

I majored in Studio Art at Swarthmore College, with a focus on drawing, printmaking, and ceramic sculpture. Even though I followed a career path into global public health, I held onto my creative side and often tried to find ways to incorporate creativity and visual arts into my public health work.

When I discovered the Zentangle Method, a meditative art form that I practice and teach, it transformed my life. It helped me bring creativity back to my center. I emerged from my first Introduction to Zentangle class completely inspired, with a set of their beautiful materials, and with a plan to keep drawing “tangles.”

I love teaching the Zentangle Method. I bring my enthusiasm and joy to others; and, while not everyone will continue the practice, they have proved to themselves that they can create something intricate and beautiful. Some people, like me, find their own joy and calm through Zentangle and continue it as a creative practice in their own lives.

How I Live in the World and in Community

I’m a mom of two children, who stretch me in so many ways and enhance my life with so much love. We’ve navigated, and continue to navigate, some neurodivergent twists in the path along the way. I’m a spouse to a fast-moving, engaged, and loving husband. I teach Art Goes to School. I am a Girls on the Run coach. I was an EMT and an athletic trainer. I love traveling, reading, eating good food from around the world, being warm, ziplining, and challenging myself. I cherish my close friends and family. I believe in social action, advocacy, and repairing the world.