About Me

In both my personal and professional life, change has always beckoned me to move forward. Although following a new path can be daunting, embracing change has always expanded my skills, deepened my knowledge and offered more possibilities for opportunity — and joy — than I ever imagined. I’ve learned to accept change as a unique gift. 

In business, as in life, change is constant. It’s how we grow, improve and succeed; it’s how we survive.

In my experience, conflict often arises when our relationship to work is no longer aligned with our professional goals and core values. This usually feels like stagnation, a bump in the road, feeling fed up, or noticing old or new patterns in ourselves that we don’t like.

My mission is to provide a safe and supportive environment for people to reconnect with their authenticity and move forward with intention. By offering a mix of practices, tools and new perspectives, I help clients deepen their capacity to lead more effectively, expand their network of support and connect more powerfully and positively with their work.

Let’s Work Together

My Background

My first career was in the film industry, where I worked for over two decades. In the early days, I was underpaid, overworked and overwhelmed with no one to serve as a mentor. I worked long hours and had to fend for myself to learn and create systems, to gain recognition for my work and to be fairly compensated. As many of my “war buddies” from that time would say about themselves, I learned a ton about how movies get made and worked so hard that I barely remember my twenties.  

The pressure to oversee the completion of feature films was intense. I was leading post-production teams in my mid-twenties. Any attempt at a “Hey, we’re not curing cancer here,” vibe was squashed by a hammering tirade from the independent film moguls running our company. I had a great deal of responsibility with very little authority, which is not a winning combination. Challenges began to feel insurmountable, and there was no time (or space created) to reflect on completed projects and how best to move forward. Hostility and disdain became my way of being when feeling stressed at work. I felt like the real me was disappearing. When I almost missed a flight to LA after pulling an all-nighter on a sound mixing stage, I knew it was time to make a change before the things I loved about myself completely vanished.

I left my job, with 52 days worth of vacation pay in my hands and took a road trip up the west coast of the United States, eventually flying up to see friends in Alaska. I gave myself the gift of time and space to reflect on what I wanted my career to look like, not just in my head but also in my heart and soul. 

I returned to LA and the film industry, feeling reconnected to my core values of respect, kindness, playfulness, openness and acceptance. Showing up authentically helped me make better business decisions and more meaningful connections. My new style of leadership encouraged others to build positive work environments together as a team, where we felt free to be ourselves while fostering trust and respect for others. We were efficient, and, for the most part, we enjoyed working together. We were in the flow state, and life felt easier at work and home.

After twenty years of hard work, I earned the title of Vice President of Feature Post-Production at Warner Bros. Time to reflect on projects, workflow and team management was an expected part the job. From this new view of the film industry, I cherished the space to reflect. It was there that a new career path began to unfold for me. My love of film is a constant, and from there grew an evolving competence in personal and professional development, team leadership and creating work environments that inspire growth, trust and authenticity. 

About Shorecliff

As a very young girl, I spent my summers in a small cottage overlooking the Great Peconic Bay in Hampton Bays, NY. There were 11 other cottages, teeming with young children with curious minds and boundless energy. With the Peconic sitting high on the horizon, Shorecliff was the backdrop to our childhood adventures. 

I collected shells, tortured jellyfish (sorry!), went clamming and learned to swim. By night, I watched fireflies and then the stars and played kick-the-can with the older kids. I produced talent shows and split my lip open on the slide. I crushed rocks--with bigger rocks--looking for gems. I played really bad badminton and climbed so high on the play structure that I had to scream for help to get down.

Shorecliff was a place where I could put into practice almost anything I could imagine. I could try out any number of personas just to see how it felt. Only in this safe and supportive environment could I be a producer of plays, a geologist and a jellyfish murderer all in one day. At Shorecliff, I could climb higher than was comfortable and explore my environment with curiosity and a sense of adventure. Through my coaching practice I strive to create an inviting, supportive and thought-provoking space, much like Shorecliff, for clients to explore new perspectives and feel open to new discoveries.