Lifelong educator and student, do-gooder, daydreamer, singer, dancer, world traveler with a serious case of wanderlust - culinary experimenter - oenophile - appreciator of nature, literature, architecture, music, and all things aesthetic...

CORE VALUES

I believe each individual should have:
- daily access to clean water and nutrient-dense food that is conscientiously produced;
- an affordable home that provides safe shelter and warmth;
- quality health care that supports physical, psychological, and emotional wellness.

I am committed to learning about the issues that affect our communities and larger society, being an active participant in solving problems, and working toward ongoing improvement initiatives leading to positive transformations.

I strive to educate and inspire others to share ownership of these responsibilities, make thoughtful choices, and take meaningful actions.

I am concerned about how we treat our fellow humans and our planet, and push for us to do better.

I subscribe to the belief that we should think globally and act locally to create our best world.

I live by these values in hopes of leading by example and making a positive impact.

Leveraging Empathy and Emotional Intelligence

I embrace roles and responsibilities that call me to address social justice issues, driven by individual, team, and organizational commitment to serving the greater good with focus on continuous improvement. I attribute my ongoing success largely to the value I place on promoting empathy and emotional/social intelligence.

Over the years, I have refined an ability to read people - to put myself in their shoes, to take time to understand their motives, and to think beyond myself and my own viewpoints. A keen observer and an active listener, I study individuals and strive to truly empathize with their perspectives. While we may not always see eye to eye, I encourage open dialogue and respectful debate, coaching others to respond with acknowledgement, open-mindedness, and respect. As a leader, I strive to leverage the strengths of individual contributors and to get to the root causes of obstacles so I may help each person realize the best version of themselves for the good of the common cause. I have been called thoughtful, insightful, trustworthy, well liked, collaborative, influential, and someone who pools all resources in doing whatever it takes to make positive changes happen.

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
- Maya Angelou

"Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence."
- Sheryl Sandberg

I embrace technology. I really do. (I.T. firms have paid me to oversee database implementations, so there's proof). But when a team member sends me an IM from just outside my office instead of popping in to ask me a quick question face-to-face, I feel concerned that technology is helping to eliminate the need for real interaction, whereby reducing our ability to relate to and empathize with one another. I also find it sad that social media has made us less social in person, as many seem to now interact with "friends" from their screens throughout all hours of the day, and prefer quantity of social contacts over quality of time spent in person with close connections. In these regards, technology is actually creating barriers between us and threatening our humanity.

Whenever possible, I like to find ways to encourage in-person interactions that are engaging and effective for meeting individual, team, and organizational goals, while incorporating cross-functional information sharing and growth opportunities in the process. I also encourage walking meetings (sometimes to grab an occasional beverage or indulgent treat), hourly stretches, and spontaneous 30-second dance parties. Live relationships are, by nature, more engaging and collaborative than those that are virtual.

I love frameworks and use them regularly in all facets of life.

The MBTI is one such framework that I have found to be useful in choosing roles that will allow me to leverage my own talents, as well as to best understand how to effectively communicate and work with others to capitalize on their unique preferences and strengths in a variety of situations.

I have taken the MBTI in various forms over the years, and the results have remained consistent, with one variance - ENFP or ENFJ.

I believe these assessments to be spot on in encompassing how I operate, and I find the principles useful in pursuing work and personal interests that are aligned with my type and preferences.

As an ENF, I am motivated by my beliefs in humanitarian causes, and it is important for me to have work that is consistent with my values. I am particularly interested in helping other people develop as individuals. I dislike routine tasks and thrive on a variety of challenges. I prefer to schedule my own priorities, and become frustrated with excessive regulations or mundane details. I seek out fun, novel tasks that allow me to be imaginative and relate with other people in an unstructured, supportive way.

My ideal work environment is relaxed, friendly, and collaborative, with few restrictions on creativity and one that encourages out-of-the-box thinking. My ideal job allows me to follow my inspiration, satisfy my curiosity, and develop solutions that benefit people in innovative and original ways.

ENFP/J "Empathic and Diplomatic Campaigner/Protagonist" - Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Prospecting/Judging

Click images below for more details:

Clifton StrengthsFinder Top 5 Themes:
Empathy, Woo, Arranger, INPUT, COMMUNICATION

In conjunction with my Myers-Briggs Type preferences, I seek opportunities that allow me to do what I do best - to contribute my talents in positions that leverage the following StrengthsFinder Themes:

Empathy

I can sense the emotions of those around me. I can feel what they are feeling as though their feelings are my own. Intuitively, I am able to see the world through their eyes and share their perspective. I do not necessarily agree with each person's perspective. I do not necessarily condone the choices each person makes, but I do understand. This instinctive ability to understand is powerful. I hear the unvoiced questions. I anticipate the need. Where others grapple for words, I seem to find the right words and the right tone. I help people find the right phrases to express their feelings -- to themselves as well as to others. I help them give voice to their emotional life. For all these reasons other people are drawn to me.

Woo (Winning others over)

I enjoy the challenge of meeting new people and getting them to like me. Strangers are rarely intimidating to me. On the contrary, strangers can be energizing. I am drawn to them. I want to learn their names, ask them questions, and find some area of common interest so that I can strike up a conversation and build rapport. Some people shy away from starting up conversations because they worry about running out of things to say. I don't. Not only am I rarely at a loss for words; I actually enjoy initiating with strangers because I derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection. Once that connection is made, I am quite happy to wrap it up and move on. There are new people to meet, new rooms to work, new crowds to mingle in. In my world there are no strangers, only friends I haven't met yet -- lots of them.

Arranger

I am a conductor. When faced with a complex situation involving many factors, I enjoy managing all of the variables, aligning and realigning them until I am sure I have arranged them in the most productive configuration possible. In my mind there is nothing special about what I am doing. I am simply trying to figure out the best way to get things done. But others, lacking this theme, will be in awe of my ability. "How can you keep so many things in your head at once?" they will ask. "How can you stay so flexible, so willing to shelve well-laid plans in favor of some brand-new configuration that has just occurred to you?" But I cannot imagine behaving in any other way. I am a shining example of effective flexibility, whether I am changing travel schedules at the last minute because a better fare has popped up or mulling over just the right combination of people and resources to accomplish a new project. From the mundane to the complex, I am always looking for the perfect configuration. Of course, I am at my best in dynamic situations. Confronted with the unexpected, some complain that plans devised with such care cannot be changed, while others take refuge in the existing rules or procedures. I don't do either. Instead, I jump into the confusion, devising new options, hunting for new paths of least resistance, and figuring out new partnerships -- because, after all, there might just be a better way.

Input

I am inquisitive. I collect information and experiences -- words, facts, books, quotations, and I thrive on global experiences and cultural immersion. Mine is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. I read a great deal, not necessarily to refine my theories but, rather, to add more information to my archives. I like to travel, because each new location offers novel artifacts and facts. These are acquired and then stored away because they are interesting and keep my mind fresh, and inevitably will prove valuable in another context somewhere along the way.

Communication

I like to explain, to describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write. This is my Communication theme at work. Ideas are a dry beginning. Events are static. I feel a need to bring them to life, to energize them, to make them exciting and vivid, and so I turn events into stories and practice telling them. I take the dry idea and enliven it with images and examples and metaphors. I believe that most people have a very short attention span. They are bombarded by information, but very little of it survives. I want my information -- whether an idea, an event, a product's features and benefits, a discovery, or a lesson -- to survive. I want to divert their attention toward me and then capture it, lock it in. This is what drives my hunt for the perfect phrase. This is what draws me toward dramatic words and powerful word combinations. This is why people like to listen to me. My word pictures pique their interest, sharpen their world, and inspire them to act.

Reference: Clifton StrenthsFinder Theme Descriptions

"LET THY FOOD BE THY MEDICINE AND THY MEDICINE BE THY FOOD." - Hippocrates

Having suffered extreme allergies, debilitating migraines, hormonal imbalances, multiple autoimmune conditions, and resulting distress symptoms throughout the first few decades of my life, I was fortunate to discover the healing power of nutrition and functional medicine. 

Throughout much of my life, I have been influenced by many health trends and participated in several exercise fads and popular dietary movements of the times - ranging from yoga and raw vegan to hardcore boot camps and mostly meat. Thankfully, after years of trial and error reinforced by analyzing countless researched-based studies, I am thrilled to have found the balance of nutrition and exercise that I find to be optimal and sustainable for my own needs.

The best thing about adapting an optimal lifestyle is the immediate positive results you notice in your mental and emotional health. Within a few weeks of eliminating processed products and the buildup of toxic chemicals from your body, you notice that you feel better equipped to process thoughts and emotions, moods are more balanced, quality and quantity of sleep are improved so you feel more well rested, and stress and illness are reduced or eliminated. It seems hard to believe that simply changing what you eat can bring such drastic changes, and I would not have believed it myself if I had not had the discipline to see for myself and experienced a drastic transformation firsthand.

Nutritional health is individual; there is no one-size-fits-all approach to achieving a healthy body and mind. I have learned that the key to achieving maximum nutrition is understanding that what we put into our bodies can do only one of two things: it either provides fuel to energize us, or it gets converted to stored fat and makes us feel lethargic. Food should be easily digestible and make us feel energized - not make us feel bloaty, gassy, sluggish, tired, or like we need to take a nap to recover from the meal. If we mindfully observe how we feel after eating something, we are able to know intuitively whether that thing is good for us, and every one is different. Whether vegan, carnivorous, or somewhere in between - the key to a healthy body and mind is to consume only real, nutrient-dense food and avoid processed products. 

I am so passionate about the transformational healing and energizing powers of nutritional health that I seriously considered going back to school to become a registered dietitian. However, this would be quite a daunting endeavor, given the near absence of science in my educational background (my brain is right-hemisphere dominant), and formal licensing in these fields requires quite a lot of it. For now, this remains a personal passion that I gladly share with whomever expresses interest in hearing about what I have learned along the way, and I am energized when I can help others by sharing my story and inspiring them to evaluate their own relationships with food.

In addition to following a consistent nutritional framework that provides essential nutrients through organic whole foods, I do daily strengthening and moderate cardio exercises, and I walk several miles a day (have not owned a car since 2002!). In the workplace, I take the initiative to encourage morning and afternoon stretch sessions with my team, suggest standing or walking meetings instead of at conference tables (with 2- or 3-minute plank discussions thrown in when the team is feeling up to some friendly competition), and I have been using an adjustable standing computer workstation for years, with a physio ball for occasional breaks and desk exercises. Sitting is the new smoking, people - move it or lose it! 

An avid reader of nutritional and wellness-related content, here are a few favorites that I frequent:

THE ENERGY PROJECT

BALANCED BITES

MINDFUL

MARK AND ANGEL