Strategic Sales & Marketing Leader
driven to enable student and educator success
Whether I am working directly with students in the classroom, marketing to educators with a creative digital campaign, or collaborating with organization leaders to devise the next strategic plan, I am functioning with students and educators and their successes top-of-mind.
My Story
As a child, I wanted to be an author, artist, and astronaut. Eventually, I explored careers with greater alphabetical diversity. Even though I was deeply creative, I loved all things math and science (I was the youngest member of the Chagrin Valley Astronomical Society!), so I gravitated toward engineering. I attended the University of Virginia (wahoo wah!), where I studied applied math and aerospace engineering. My creative side sought refuge in Peabody Hall, where I assumed increasing roles on the yearbook staff, ultimately serving as the editor-in-chief.
As a teenager, I had the great fortune to attend Space Camp. If you ever made the mistake of watching the 1986 movie Space Camp, then you'll be pleased to know that the real thing is nothing like the movie, thank goodness.
As a Herff Jones yearbook representative, I worked directly with students and teachers in K-12 schools. In addition to daily classroom meetings, I conducted summer workshops and spoke regularly at local, state, and national journalism conventions.
That experience was transformative — I learned that I loved the design process, relished leading a team, and had untapped financial acumen. Eventually, I figured out that engineering wouldn't satisfy me, so I accepted a position as an independent sales representative for Herff Jones. I thought I would spend a few years helping students and teachers find the same joy I found in the yearbook process, but ten years later I earned Hall of Fame status, the highest honor Herff Jones sales representatives can achieve. Turns out, I found more than joy in the yearbook process: I found success. I also found my husband, Gary, a history teacher, and together we started our family — two boys, David and Matthew.
Once I realized that marketing was my sweet spot, I intended to return to business school, but that proved difficult while running my own business and raising a family. My career led us to Charlotte, NC, and then to Indianapolis, IN. Along the way, I led a rockstar marketing team and a $100M division. My boys became avid soccer players, Boy Scouts, robotics champions, a journalist, and a computer scientist.
When I'm not at my computer, you'll find me on the sidelines of a soccer game cheering, glued to my couch with a book (and my cat) in my lap, working a new puzzle, or hiking a local trail with my husband. My favorite vacations are in the mountains of New Hampshire or in the Smokies, where the trails are much more interesting than in Indiana. My secret skill is turning fresh grapes or black raspberries into the best darn jelly or jam you've ever eaten, something my grandmother taught me several decades ago. And, I once flew with the Blue Angels — never mind that I was in a Cessna 150 at the time... we shared airspace!