I grew up in the South. My father was a physicist with NASA and my mother was a concert violinist.  It was, to say the least, a rich learning environment.  

My father was brilliant – in fact, it was my father’s camera that sent the pictures back to earth when the first men walked on the moon.  People who know me and my family think I’m smart because of my daddy, which is probably true, but I attribute my success to my mama.  She invested her time, energy, and heart in teaching me to align thinking and feeling.  She taught me the art of keen observation and to trust my intuition; she taught me process and how to improve it; and she taught me about relationships, in particular how to hold my self-image in times of stress. She taught me to be an independent, thinking woman.  

So I took my daddy's smarts and my mama's teachings and began my career (you can read more about that on the next page).  Along the way, three traits have characterized my success:  leadership, perspective, and spark.  Leadership is more than just establishing direction, aligning people, and achieving goals.  It is being trustworthy, fair, accountable, and enthusiastic.  Oh yes, and calm in the face of ambiguity.  My Perspective has evolved from being constantly curious, taking calculated risks, and developing resiliency.  I’ve learned that success – in life and in my career – is built on holding to my values and maintaining enduring relationships.  And, Spark?  My spark includes wit, empathy, humor, flexibility and generosity.  People refer to spark as the beer quotient; a person has spark if you like them enough to have a beer with them. 

My work as a coach focuses on using proven tools and methodologies, applying the wisdom of my upbringing and the lessons of my professional experience in a pragmatic way, to help my clients develop their leadership, their perspective and their spark!