As a forewarning, this is a long story…I am aware that many "experts" will advise that people don't read long text anymore, but I think some people still do and if you're one of those, settle in with a hot cup of something lovely. Having been in the HR profession most of my career, I feel that a person's whole background is what makes them unique and interesting and can often bring new insights or perspectives that one would miss if they had only looked within a narrow view.

 

My upbringing, early job experiences, role models, education, all of the positions I've held and experiences I've had are what make me the professional I am today. They all have shaped me, informed my values and interests, and are all related to my intrinsic motivations and passions in some way. My hope is that this narrative provides some insight into what makes me unique, what drives me, and how I can add value to your organization.

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I was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, the youngest of four in a blended family. My dad was a professor of natural resources & land management at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for 38 years. My mom taught statistics at UAF and eventually started her own statistical consulting business after a life-altering car accident that left her permanently disabled. My stepmom was in advertising and radio, and heavily involved in volunteer work. These three role models, along with my siblings, influenced me heavily and helped shape me into who I am today, my values, my work ethic, my entrepreneurial spirit, and my love of learning. We were encouraged from an early age to learn all we could about topics of interest, to explore by reading and doing, and to dream big. 

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It's hard to say what my first “job” was, but here are some of the things I did as a youth:

• Newspaper journalist, police blotter reporter, and co-editor with my sister when we published a monthly newspaper for kids that we distributed in downtown Fairbanks to keep ourselves busy while my mom worked. I think I was 9 or 10.

• Dishwasher and song leader for the residential girl scout camp at Twin Bears Camp for four weeks in the summer. When I was old enough, I became a counselor in training, then a camp counselor.

• “Stuffer” for a local classified ad paper – my friend and I were paid $20 each to put inserts into the weekly classified publication – we were incredibly fast with the flat rate financial incentive!

• On-call housekeeper for a local bed and breakfast owned by an elderly woman.

 

I spent the rest of my youth working in tourism. My first formal job was as a tour guide for the Alaska Railroad, one of my favorite jobs I ever held. The hours were long and required developing “sea legs” as well as memorizing 40 pages of commentary after taking a semester long introductory class to prepare for the job, but it was incredibly rewarding to share “my Alaska” with people. I also worked part time in a gift shop during that time. Going forward, I worked the front desk of a hotel, then spent several summers as a “lounge-coach attendant” (like a flight attendant but on a long, articulating bus), traveling and serving customers on three-day Alaska Highway trips between Fairbanks and Skagway, through Yukon, Canada. The lessons I learned during this time in my life about customer service, relationship building, and earning trust have proven to be foundational.

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I worked part-time throughout my college years to have spending money and contribute to my education expenses. I held two jobs on campus throughout my four years at University of Rochester. One was with the Career Counseling Center, where I coordinated with external employers to arrange internships, on-campus recruiting events, and other special events. I also became the resident psychometric test guinea pig to help counselors decide which tools to use with students. My second job was as an A/V technician for school events such as concerts, speakers, etc. I eventually worked my way up to being a manager and frequently spent evenings as the manger on duty to respond to tech emergencies. This job was a fun way to keep up the sound and lighting skills I’d learned in high school and community theatre growing up.

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As a junior in college, I spent a semester studying abroad in London, England, taking classes at the London School of Economics and working part time in an unpaid internship with Citibank Human Resources, working with the HR team that oversaw the Europe division. I swore at the end of this internship that I would never work in human resources. Famous last words…never say never! Ultimately, it was more the anonymous corporate environment that turned me off.

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After graduating with dual degrees in Psychology and Economics, and a Certificate of Management Studies in Business Management (focused on personnel management), I knew I wanted to move back west but wasn’t quite ready to return to Alaska, as there was still more of the world I wanted to see. I chose Seattle and decided that market research was a field that would capitalize on my skills, as well as give me the chance to learn something new. It was hard to find anyone hiring a college graduate with no experience, unless I wanted to work for one of the major management consulting firms, which I did not. I researched small to mid-sized companies in the Seattle area who did the type of work I was interested in doing.

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I found a company called Market Trends and discovered they were not actively recruiting or advertising positions, but they seemed like a good fit. I reached out anyway, told them I was interested in their work, that I would be in Seattle in a few weeks, and asked for an interview. Apparently, the element of surprise worked, and I landed my first professional job. I started out as an analyst in the financial services division, doing market research for banks and credit card companies. I enjoyed the work and excelled at analysis and report writing. I was quickly promoted to be a project manager in the high-tech division. This was during the dot-com boom, so it was an exciting time to be doing this work. Our team was busy and worked with tech companies throughout the Seattle area. We did market research, product concept testing, and usability testing. I enjoyed coaching and mentoring my first employee in this role as well. As I earned the team’s trust, I found myself leading team meetings when our operations manager was out. The company president took note and promoted me to the operations manager role shortly thereafter, a responsibility I took well to and enjoyed, but it required long hours in the office, and I found myself missing Alaska and tourism.

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I decided that this was the ideal time in my life to take a risk, so I moved back to Alaska and took a role as an Office Manager for a startup adventure tour company (Alaska Outdoor Adventures) based out of Whittier, Alaska, offering sea kayak tours in the summer and snow machine tours in the winter (out of Girdwood). I went through safety training with the guides so I could also serve as a backup guide and safety trainer when we had large groups. I was the only employee living in Whittier during the summer months and then moved to Girdwood as one of two year-round employees for the winter season. When the snow came extremely late, delaying the season, the owners called and told us both not to come to work because they didn’t have any work for us and couldn’t afford to pay us.

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I took a temporary job in Anchorage as a document control clerk for an engineering firm (Jacobs Engineering) before moving on to work as an Employment Counselor for a local employment agency. This was short-lived due to poor working conditions and after hiring and training two people to replace me, I was hired as a Sales Agent by a small mom and pop charter airline company called Hawaiian Vacations. During my stint as a temp employee, I also attended massage therapy school at night through an intensive program that met five nights a week for five hours each evening, for five months, culminating in earning my Massage Therapy Certification and License. Wholistic wellness is something for which I’ve always had a passion. I started a business on the side (Soothing Touch Massage) as I figured out what direction my professional path was going to take and to pursue the physical work I enjoyed.

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A year into my role at Hawaiian Vacations, the HR manager wanted to go back to school to earn her degree and the company wanted to hire an experienced HR manager, which they’d not previously had. I put my name in the hat and asked them to take a chance on me – I suggested they pay me at my current hourly rate and let me prove my worth. After realizing they couldn’t afford an experienced HR professional, they agreed. A couple years into my role as an HR professional, I decided to close my massage therapy business to focus my energy on my “day job” and to have better balance in my life.  

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Hawaiian Vacations was where I built a foundation in human resources and “grew up” as a professional. It was here that I found my mentors who pushed me and gave me the autonomy to pursue the professional development I needed to fill the gaps, and to build a full-service HR department. I am extremely proud of all that I accomplished in my time there, having been promoted to be the Director of Human Resources and Administration and serving on the executive leadership team, participating in strategic planning with the owners of the company and contributing to business decisions. I also discovered my passion for worksite wellness, employee training and development, and employee engagement. It was during my time here that I joined the Anchorage Society for Human Resources Management (ASHRM) and started a 10-year stint of serving on their board of directors. I also joined the board of directors for Alaska Health Fair after promoting and using their services for many years; I currently serve as the President of the Board for Alaska Health Fair.

 

Seven years after I started, Hawaiian Vacations was bought by Alaska Airlines to shut it down to avoid competing with our services as they brought Alaska-Hawaii direct flights to the market. I was literally the last employee out the door and still maintain a friendship with the former owners to this day, as well as with my mentors, the former CFO and COO, and many of the employees, despite us all going our separate ways.

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After closing the doors, I had a choice to make. I could either immediately get a job or I could take another risk and use the time in a different way. I decided on an epic adventure. My then-fiance quit his job and we left the country to spend four months backpacking around Southeast Asia and China. We started in Singapore, went through Malaysia, all over Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and then into China – from Shenzhen to Inner Mongolia to Hong Kong and everything in between. It was an amazing opportunity and the trip of a lifetime. When we returned, we experienced a bit of culture shock and took some time to adjust back into western life, as well as to plan a wedding.

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Shortly thereafter, I received a call from the broker who I had hired to manage our employee insurance accounts at Hawaiian Vacations, asking to meet for lunch. He offered me the opportunity to create a position with the firm, Northrim Benefits Group, as a Human Resources and Worksite Wellness Consultant. I built the position from scratch and provided a value-added service of human resources consulting and worksite wellness programming, which was highly beneficial and appreciated by our clients. I also developed marketing materials for our firm as we grew.

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I loved the work I was doing and enjoyed connecting with my clients. After a few years, I felt I couldn’t take a project deep enough or far enough, due to my role being limited to a “value-add” and not a full-service consultant. It became clear through my research that there wasn’t anyone offering worksite wellness consulting without trying to sell a product. I wanted to be able to customize programs, build them, and help clients manage them when they didn’t have the resources to hire someone in-house. I was also interested in developing a web-based program that I could scale and offer to my clients. In January 2012, I left the firm and started my own businesses – WhiteWater Consulting and WhiteWater Wellness. I offered HR consulting as my initial bread and butter, and started building the wellness side of my business. I partnered with a software developer to start building our web-based program; we ran a crowdfunding campaign to try to fund the project, but it was not successful. I connected with a software company who had started out in literally the same way and became a software company vs a wellness company - they were a cautionary tale. I realized that was not the path I wanted, so I focused on customizing programs for clients, helping them vet and manage vendors when appropriate and providing a roadmap of low-cost policy changes that would support their employees’ well-being.

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My business was successful and kept me quite busy, as did the two babies I had during this time in my life. The stress became overwhelming for me and my family, and I decided to go back to traditional full-time employment in 2014. I was hired as the Human Resources Director for The Aleut Corporation, one of the 13 Alaska Native Corporations formed by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The role had been vacant for several months when I stepped into it, so I hit the ground running. I served on the executive team with the President, CEO, CFO, and subsidiary Presidents, working directly with the Board of Directors in an advisory capacity. I provided day to day HR services for the smaller subsidiaries that did not have an HR department and provided support and consultative guidance to the larger subsidiary HR departments. I was also responsible for hiring and mentoring a shareholder employee to eventually replace me, as part of their corporate mission of providing shareholder opportunities. It was an honor to be a part of an organization existing for the benefit and advancement of Alaska's Native people. 

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In the two and a half years I was with the Aleut Corporation, I had several big achievements. One was conducting a successful executive search for a new CEO and eventually a CFO in collaboration with the Chairman of the Board. The second one was uncovering the fact that our 401k advisor had been fraudulently overcharging our plan to his personal benefit and covering it up for years. I worked with our plan sponsor and CFO to find a new broker and successfully brought charges against the former broker, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars saved for the company and employees in the 401k plan. I successfully fought off and negotiated a favorable settlement in a frivolous class action brought against one of our California-based subsidiaries. I oversaw the implementation of a new HRIS system to better meet the needs of the organization and continued to help with this project on a contract basis after moving on to my next employer.  

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I received a call one day from my former mentors, Dave Karp and Phil Okeson, with whom I had worked at Hawaiian Vacations, asking if I knew of anyone who could replace their retiring Managing Director, Employee Services, at Northern Aviation Services (NAS). I formally applied and accepted the role for the chance to work with a team I trusted wholeheartedly (several of my former Hawaiian Vacations colleagues were there too). When I took on the role, the company was growing rapidly, having just acquired StratAir, a freight forwarding company out of Miami. I oversaw the HR function for Northern Air Cargo and Northern Air Maintenance Services (both in Anchorage, AK), Aloha Air Cargo (in Hawaii, on each of the four main islands), and StratAir. This was by far the most challenging HR role I had ever taken on. It was fast paced, which I loved, and offered the opportunity to do a little bit of everything from strategic planning to employee and labor relations to legal investigations and leadership development, as well as overseeing a team of HR professionals and serving on the leadership team of the company. As part of the Saltchuk Family of Companies, working at NAS also offered the opportunity to collaborate across company lines with sister companies in other states and other lines of work. I worked with HR leaders at Saltchuk and the other companies to help develop and launch the cross-company Saltchuk Leadership Development Program. I became a facilitator and administrator for the program, facilitating sessions in Seattle, Anchorage, West Palm Beach, and Honolulu.

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A couple years into my time with NAS, I went through a major life event as my marriage fell apart. I was stretched to my emotional limit, and I realized I was also burnt out professionally. The only part of my job that really lit me up was when I was doing training and development work, particularly leadership development. My boss, our CEO and my long-time mentor, agreed that learning & development was where I belonged and where my talents shone the most. We devised a plan for me to train a replacement and transition out of my HR Managing Director role. Fortunately, our sister company, Carlile Transportation, had just concluded that they needed someone to come in and build up their training and development function.

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I started with Carlile Transportation as the Manager of Training and Development in January 2019. This was my dream job, and I not only loved every minute of it, but I soaked up every opportunity to hone and add to the relevant skills I’d acquired over the course of my career. I joined the Association for Talent Development and The Learning Guild, networked with other L&D professionals, took courses, and learned how to design and build e-learning, as well as other foundational tools of the trade such as ADDIE and the Kirkpatrick methods of measurement. I managed all aspects of talent development as well as performance management.

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In the course of my time there, I accomplished so many things. Here are a few highlights...

• Worked with every department throughout the organization to understand their needs.

• Implemented the company’s first Learning Management System (Cornerstone)

• Transitioned from paper reviews to online reviews in the HRIS system (UKG), then the following year implemented and transitioned to reviews and other performance management tools in Cornerstone Performance (LMS)

• Developed employee development programs to offer growth and a path forward, such as the Driver Development Program, Driver Mentor Program, and the Diesel Mechanic High School Internship Program. 

• Built custom e-learning and ILT sessions on topics ranging from soft skills to technical processes to DEI

• Facilitated countless live in-person and virtual training sessions (on a wide range of topics)

• Re-vamped the onboarding and orientation program to meet the needs of COVID and beyond

• Continued to collaborate with the corporate office (Saltchuk) and sister companies to run and facilitate the Saltchuk Leadership Development Program.

• Initiated and led a cross-company collaboration to customize Paradigm Learning’s Zodiak Business Acumen program to meet Saltchuk’s needs and offer it virtually throughout the family of companies.

• Co-led the LMS Governance Committee overseeing the functioning and management of Cornerstone across seven companies since we shared a base portal.

• Designed, developed, implemented and ran the Carlile LEADER Program - a comprehensive leadership development program that had levels for emerging leaders, mid-level leaders, and senior leaders. It was voluntary and open to all employees - we had 27 people participate in the three-month pilot and over 60 in the first full seven-month program. It involved asynchronous short lessons each week, as well as a live monthly cohort session in which we had a facilitated conversation about a specific topic. At the end of the program, participants shared their impact statements and were recognized and celebrated by executive leadership.

 

These are just a handful of the accomplishments I am proud of during my time with Carlile. A couple years into my time there, I was promoted to Director of Talent Development. I built and led a team that included an instructional designer and a driver trainer. 

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On the personal side of things, a year after I started at Carlile, on a flight to my hometown to visit family for the holidays, I sat next to and struck up a conversation with a stranger who eventually turned out to be the love of my life…We were married in 2022 and have been enjoying wedded bliss ever since!

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As life goes, even good things come to an end. On April 7, 2024, my entire department was cut, due to a sudden financial-driven restructuring, and my team and I were laid off, along with several other leaders. To say I was devastated is an understatement. This is the sort of thing that, regardless of the reasons, can shake a person to their core, particularly when one is so invested in their work and cares so deeply about the people it impacts. Thankfully, resilience is my superpower. 

 

After mourning the path I thought I was on, I came to believe that this door closing was ultimately meant to make room for incredible opportunities as new ones open. ​

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I started ZenFox Solutions in order to create and build solutions for individuals and companies in professional and leadership development, performance management, teambuilding, integrating learning technology, and enhancing performance. I am working on creating a standalone program for people from smaller businesses who don't have in-house resources, to participate in a community and cohort-based leadership development program. More to come on that front! In addition, I am creating custom retreat experiences set in some of the most beautiful places in Alaska, away from constant stimulation, focusing on finding and defining purpose, balance, and innovation for participants. 

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Ultimately, I am excited to be able to pull together wisdom, experience, and concepts from the areas that have both inspired and molded me into the professional I am today - travel & tourism, health & wellness, coaching, human resources, learning & development, and leadership. 

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Thank you for reading my story. I know it is long; however, I feel it provides a much more robust picture of my journey and what has shaped me as a professional than a simple resume or work history. If you would like to meet to discuss a potential project, program, collaboration, partnership, or just to network, I would love to set something up!

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Please call, text, or email. I look forward to chatting!