CREATIVE STRATEGIES THAT CHALLENGE MEDIOCRITY

I was hired by McKinsey in 2011 to do communications. It was a dream job that came with an incredible opportunity to be curious and seek out the people and projects I most wanted to learn from. Over the years, I built my own expertise in product research and design. In 2017, I was selected to co-lead Design Research training for consultants globally. It was a life changing education on human behavior, the limitless potential of design, and all the incredible ways it could be used.

I started McKinsey Cares with a small group of colleagues because we wanted to use our skills and our time to benefit our neighbors and community. Over the years, hundreds of other colleagues joined us to volunteer with local organizations all over NYC and in turn built deep relationships with each other, our neighbors across the city, and with a sense of purpose and belonging.

We pursued a variety of missions, developed new skills, and made incredible memories. Many of the people I met through McKinsey Cares have become lifelong friends!

After McKinsey, I took what I learned about the business of innovation and what I learned about the craft of product design, and I developed my own brand of leadership at an emerging tech company. I took care to create psychological safety-- making a way for people to be imaginative, face the risk of failure, and navigate the terrain of change.

This paid off as my team of designers, linguists, and engineers earned the highest performance ratings in the company in 2019.

I joined South Bronx United in 2017 as a girls soccer coach for middle schoolers. The mission of the club is to help immigrant kids have an immediate sense of belonging once they land in NYC. The club is  so much more than sport; we also helped our families with the legal system, academics, and other important services like literacy and nutrition. As a former player, I was finally paying forward what was once poured into me. I even earned an award for my service from Gotham FC, the NWSL team in NY/NJ!

By 2020, I had been taking on freelance projects for over a decade to balance my creative muscle with the commercially driven work I was doing with large corporations. When the pandemic hit, I knew I wanted to be in the trenches with smaller, more localized organizations. 5 years later, my clients range from bakeries, to utility companies, to local farms and all sorts of industries and sizes in between. I’m doing work that I’m proud of, that feeds my soul and binds me to something bigger than myself.

2024 brought the World Design Capital to the San Diego Tijuana region, where I spent my childhood years. The year was full of opportunities to explore art, design, and craft through the eyes of so many different types of creators. I returned to San Diego and was hired to produce the content and technology for AIGA San Diego Tijuana and all of their events for the year. I quickly built relationships with people, history, and a new hope for our future. I was inspired to co-found Unplugged, a relational event series. In the digital age, my bets are on the artists and the creatives who can think beyond the status quo.