People have always intrigued me and generated my sense of wonder — what motivates us, what makes us who we are, and how we connect. As a ten year old selling pretzels on the streets of Philadelphia, this experience was a masterclass in how to interact with people. In school, I found my way to the crew team as a coxswain — never picking up an oar, yet my role lay in reading the room (or boat) and making split-second calls that could make or break a race: steering, calling the pace, and making sure each rower had whatever they individually needed to perform, so that together, we crossed the finish line successfully, ahead of our competition. This experience taught me early that leadership isn't about who makes the decision — it's about the leader's ability to understand the needs of each  person, whether its verbal motivation or coaching on technique while still getting everyone rowing in sync. One key take-away has stayed with me ever since: nothing succeeds without people.

In my experience, anytime I tried to morph myself to fit into a culture that wasn't aligned with my value system, it has been a failure. Authenticity is the foundation which everything else is built on — and it's the same approach I bring to every student, teammate, and professional I work with: know your strengths, stay true to them, and let that be what leads you through.

Merchandising, eCommerce, and all things retail have been my world for my entire career. I have worked across brands including The May Company, Talbots, PUMA, ALEX AND ANI, J.Jill, and the Harley-Davidson Motor Company. Throughout my three decades  in the professional workforce, I've consistently been the one tapped to stand up new brands, launch new ventures, and develop new business models from the ground up inside organizations. Looking back, I can see building teams is one of my core strengths. What generates success  is the people: taking on ambitious, ground-up challenges and building the structure, clarity, and trust that let these new teams do their best work.

After nearly twenty years speaking at colleges and universities and industry conferences, I found my way into the classroom. Today, I'm on faculty in the Entrepreneurship Division at Babson College, surrounded by students who are just as passionate about leadership as they are about incubating their own ventures. I focus my teaching on Entrepreneurship in Fashion, Organizational Entrepreneurship, and Fashion and Influencer Brands — geared to high school, undergraduate, graduate, and executive education audiences.

My belief that people are at the root of every success — and that leading with your strengths is the surest way to get there — is what drives my Skills Discovery workshop focus where I help professionals and students uncover their own realized and unrealized strengths, learned skills, and leadership approaches using the same techniques I have learned across my career.

So much like a pretzel, my path has had its twists and turns — different brands, different people, different roles, a little salt along the way — but every turn has lead back to the same thing: people.