What was your edu­ca­tion and career path­way that led you to being the Pres­i­dent of the Bright Foun­da­tion? 

This is quite a bit of a wind­ing road, so stick with me here! I went straight from high school to Iowa State where I grad­u­at­ed with a degree in Child and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices and a minor in Span­ish. I changed my major once from Polit­i­cal Sci­ence and Inter­na­tion­al Rela­tions, which is anoth­er sto­ry all togeth­er. By my junior year of col­lege, I was work­ing most­ly full-time in my field as a Res­i­dent Coun­selor at a res­i­den­tial and day treat­ment facil­i­ty for chil­dren in Ames. Short­ly after I grad­u­at­ed, I moved to Flori­da where I worked as a leas­ing con­sul­tant for an apart­ment com­plex, then as a book­keep­er for a non-prof­it. After about a year and a half, I moved back to Iowa and start­ed work­ing as an Assis­tant Prop­er­ty Man­ag­er for a com­mer­cial real estate com­pa­ny while I fig­ured out what I want­ed to do. While I enjoyed real estate, I missed the aspect of help­ing youth and decid­ed I want­ed to go to grad school. I also got my Real Estate License and worked as a Bro­ker­age Assis­tant in com­mer­cial real estate while I went to grad school. So from the ages of 19 – 23, I had quite a vari­ety of work expe­ri­ences that were most­ly found by fol­low­ing the path of least resis­tance. They did help me to solid­i­fy what type of work would allow me to be finan­cial­ly inde­pen­dent while also staying true to myself and what most fueled my pas­sions.

Dur­ing col­lege, a friend gave me a book called Sav­age Inequal­i­ties by Johnathan Kozol that focused on inequities in pub­lic edu­ca­tion. At the time I read it, I remem­ber think­ing, ​“this is what I want to do; I want to address these needs, but I don’t want to teach.” In hind­sight, I wish I would have dis­cussed this with an advi­sor or some­one in col­lege to explore this pos­si­ble career path as it may have led me down more of a research path. But, that path of least resis­tance meant I put myself into Child and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices and a 3.5 year grad­u­a­tion plan, which was just fine with me. Years lat­er, this book came back to me as I was con­tem­plat­ing my ​“real” career path and decid­ing on grad­u­ate pro­grams.

I knew I want­ed to be an advo­cate for youth and oppor­tu­ni­ties for them, and sys­temic inequities still got me all riled up, so I con­sid­ered both law school and get­ting my mas­ters in school coun­sel­ing. I sat for my LSATs but then at appli­ca­tion time, I opt­ed for the school coun­sel­ing route, putting all of my eggs in that bas­ket first. Like­ly it felt like the path of least resis­tance again. It all worked out for the best for me and I found myself work­ing in a field that led to more oppor­tu­ni­ties for me to advo­cate for youth, work towards address­ing sys­temic inequal­i­ties, grow as a leader in my field, and get to col­lab­o­rate with some of the most intel­li­gent, pas­sion­ate, inspir­ing, and fun indi­vid­u­als across the coun­try and right here in Iowa. That career in school coun­sel­ing for over a decade is what con­nect­ed me with the Bright Foun­da­tion where I start­ed as the Direc­tor of Schol­ar­ships. All the jobs I’ve had along the way have helped to pre­pare me in some way for the role I have today as President.

What per­son­al val­ues do you bring to your role as Pres­i­dent of the Bright Foun­da­tion? 

I believe all peo­ple should have equi­table oppor­tu­ni­ties to find their own suc­cess, par­tic­u­lar­ly through educa­tion, regard­less of any demo­graph­ic fac­tor includ­ing race, eth­nic­i­ty, gen­der, or socioe­co­nom­ic back­ground. That core belief is why I do the work I do and trans­lates direct­ly to being the Pres­i­dent of the Bright Foun­da­tion. At one point, a high school edu­ca­tion was suf­fi­cient to find suc­cess in a career field and sup­port your­self in life. We know that is not the case today and it is imper­a­tive to me that every­one have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pur­sue post-sec­ondary edu­ca­tion and train­ing. Not every­one wants or needs a bachelor’s degree, but for those that do, I want to remove as many bar­ri­ers as pos­si­ble so those on that path have every tool avail­able to find their own suc­cess. It is my plea­sure and priv­i­lege to lead the Bright Foun­da­tion in its endeav­ors to sup­port more stu­dents across the state in grad­u­at­ing col­lege so that they too can launch their own careers and lever­age that col­lege expe­ri­ence as they nav­i­gate their own jour­ney.