My career started in banking and finance, then moved into corporate Human Resources and organizational development — the training ground for almost everything I do today. I've always built long-lasting, supportive relationships that span every area of my life, and I stay connected with colleagues from throughout my career, long after the working relationship itself has ended. In 1999, that path took an entrepreneurial turn: I purchased James Alan Salon & Spa in Shoreline, Washington, and spent the next two and a half decades growing it into a business with more than 30 team members — twice named Washington CEO Magazine's "Best Small Company to Work For," in 2003 and 2005. Along the way, I completed the University of Washington's Executive Development Program and learned what actually moves a team: not policy, but people who feel heard, led, and given room to grow.

Volunteer leadership has run through my whole adult life — starting as Co-Chair of the Freedom Day Committee in the late 1980s, and later as board chair for the Center for Human Services, the Dale Turner Family YMCA, and the Point Edwards HOA. In 2009, a conversation with a longtime salon client opened my eyes to the realities of sex trafficking, and alongside my colleague Lauren Ebright, I co-founded the Justice and Soul Foundation. In 2013, I sold nearly everything I owned and moved to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to help build a Western-style salon and cosmetology academy for trafficking survivors and at-risk youth — a two-year program that pays students a livable wage while they train, and has since sent graduates into salons across Cambodia and into instructor roles of their own.

I still chair the board of Justice and Soul today, and I've spent years as a national trainer and speaker — including work alongside Context International on personal and professional development seminars, and workshops helping gap-year students find clarity about their next steps. That range — leading teams from Seattle to Phnom Penh, and working with everyone from high school and college students to executive boardrooms — shapes how I approach every engagement, with an eye for systems, and a bias toward people.

Today, I continue to oversee James Alan Salon & Spa but put much of my time and energy into Northern Torch: training, consulting, coaching, and retreats for organizations of every size, from the team of six to the multi-location operation figuring out what comes after its founder. I also remain closely involved with Justice and Soul, both locally and in Cambodia, continuing to support and grow its mission.