No matter what I’m doing, it involves people - my family, my fencing club, or even just the clients I get to help.
Everyone matters. Everyone is seen.
There is strength in admitting you are wrong, and it makes it so much more powerful when you advocate for what you know is right.
Growing up in a large family (I have over 80 cousins) means needing to learn how to communicate and learn you’re not the most important person in the room. I ran a national fencing nonprofit with over 3,000 members, and that meant needing to learn to take responsibility, even when someone else dropped the ball. Founding a historical fencing club in Denver with over 100 members means listening to your students as much as you teach them.
There is no such thing as one-person collaboration machines - we all have to work with each other. If we can’t do that with respect, kindness, and bravery, then we’re just going through the aesthetics of productivity without doing anything valuable. Building teams on trust, safety, and admiration for each other’s disciplines means you can build valuable products faster and cheaper. If your team struggles to work together or finds it challenging to deliver meaningful products, that’s a symptom that one of those pillars is missing.
I live design and the design process. The best design is kind and thoughtful in its responsibility to users. Harsh, sterile approaches do your products no favors and give your teams little joy. Design cannot be successful without collaboration - sheer force of design will is not enough. Your engineers, product managers, and clients all need to be bought in. You can’t bring moments of ‘delight’ to a user without a foundation of flow, and you won’t lay that foundation without a team that cares for each other.
I have 3 rescue dogs that were breeding stock at abusive puppy mills, and every day I am humbled them. I an the executive director of a nonprofit historical fencing school in Denver that I’ve grown to over 100 members with a strong and diverse community. I recently retired from competitive fencing, with my ranking at 87th in the world out of 9,000+ fencers in the longsword division. In my free time I enjoy cooking, sewing, gardening, and bouldering.
