About Me
My career began during the economic downturn in 2009 following my graduation from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising where I studied to be an apparel buyer. Graduating during such a downturn had a profound impact on me. While I had my new degree, I worked several jobs to make ends meet and pay off my student loans. I worked at a Gap store as an Assistant Manager and at Old Navy as an entry-level inventory management employee. After I was given the opportunity to work full-time at Old Navy HQ, I grew in the company, made lifelong connections, and became a buyer for our international markets.
During my tenure, I was nominated to be a part of the founding team of GapWIL (Women in Leadership) where I started as Events Co-Chair and ascended to the Global Chair. In this role, I was spearheading growth and opening GapWIL chapters in other countries. This involved leading roundtable discussions with Gap Inc. leaders, hosting panel speaker events, and creating a mentor program for our international partners. It was my work with GapWIL that got the attention of a leader in human resources who asked me to make the move from inventory management to human resources. This represented a radical change in my career path, but as I have learned, following the right people is always a great career decision.
I took the leap into human resources and have been in that workspace ever since. My leaders were instrumental in teaching me this new world and those teachings were invaluable. In this capacity, I focused heavily on organizational design projects where we iterated our Canada and China models. Unfortunately, I also gained the experience of change management, where we had to close down our Japanese storefronts. While challenging, I learned crucial lessons that so long as you handle tough situations with love and care, you will earn the respect of others. Keeping the human element in mind for any people-related activities has been critical in my framing of all work from this point forward.
My personal life moved me from San Francisco to the San Joaquin Valley where I thought I would have to give up my Old Navy (ON) role. Old Navy leadership was incredibly supportive and asked me to work for them remotely. I took on company-wide organizational design projects and built upon my emerging leader programs from headquarters to the fleet. After two years of working remotely, I decided to focus my shift and support local businesses. I joined a consulting firm where I helped local businesses focus on their most important asset - their talent. I had become quite involved in the Merced community running the Leadership Merced program for several years through the Greater Merced Chamber of Commerce (GMCC). I was offered to be the CEO of the GMCC which I gladly took. While in that role, I immediately assessed that the prior leadership had left the organization in serious trouble. I helped to get the Chamber out of debt, grew the membership, and improved the public standing within the community. It was then that I was offered to take on the role that I most recently had which would have a greater positive impact on our community. I was the first ever Director of People & Community Impact for Hyatt. In this role, I oversaw the opening of three historic properties (a hotel, four dining outlets, and a theater), in the pandemic focusing on our employees and building community programs. Being a people director is my expertise but I loved the addition of launching and building out the programs of the community impact department.
It would be an honor to apply my past experiences to support your organization and team achieve your goals.
