The Journey
Youthful Exuberance.
I was lucky enough to grow up in the beautiful town of Blacksburg, Virginia. Nestled quaintly in the New River Valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia, my family settled there because my grandfather helped start the School of Veterinary Sciences at Virginia Tech. As I began to look at colleges, I dreamt of far off places, sending my SATs to Universities in Hawaii, California and Oregon. Ultimately, I foreshadowed my future a little bit by thinking about the opportunity cost of it all, and ended up staying a Hokie. I’m glad I did, as I ended up with two degrees in Business, one in Management: Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology and one in Marketing. In the middle of all that I studied at the Burgundy School of Business in Dijon to help get a Global Business minor.
Early Career and the fallout.
Upon graduation, I ended up accepting a position in personal finance. I quickly found out how much I hated cold calling, but man, did I love managing money and teaching people how to plan for their financial success. The problem was that there was a lot of pressure to make sales, no matter the appropriateness for the client. As long as we could get it by compliance (and the SEC), we were expected to push financial products on people. My vision for myself was more of a financial shepherd, tending to my clients as needed and helping them along to greener pastures rather than a wolf of wall street. When I quit, I quit HARD. I sold all my stuff, bought a backpack and traveled the world for a little over three years. All seven continents: Bounced around Central and South America for a year. Sailed to Antarctica. Lived in a solar-powered shipping container in Africa. Hitchhiked across Europe. Lived out of a car in Australia. Motorcycled through southeast Asia. Even spent some time teaching snowboarding in Colorado.
A redefinition.
The travels provided me with a lifetime of experiences in just a few years, but it also gave me perspective. With this new understanding of how truly connected we all are to each other and seeing the early impacts of climate change first hand, I was drawn back to school. At SIT Graduate Institute, I studied Sustainable Development with concentrations in Policy Advocacy and Monitoring & Evaluation. I’m currently a LEED Green Associate and working towards a Permaculture Design Certificate. Everything I do, I work to emphasize systems thinking and feedback loops to make sure that the projects is meeting its stated goals and measuring the total impact on people, planet, and financial bottom line. I own several small businesses that you can check out on the Projects tab.