I’m a forever believer in dreams.
When I was eight years old, my mother took me to the San Jose family homeless shelter. I scarcely remember the facility itself, but I remember making a new friend named Ella. During that visit, Ella and I thumbed through a well-worn Oh, the Places You’ll Go, imagining ourselves in each illustrated world. We both loved Dr. Seuss.
What struck me more than the economic reality of families like Ella’s was the mutuality of the friendship we developed there. I found myself— at eight years old— sharing my dreams with her and hoping she would be able to accomplish her own. Thus began my lifelong journey of discovering what I can do to close the gap between Ella’s circumstances and mine. Throughout my teenage and young adult years, I became determined to find ways to resource marginalized communities so that they might experience freedom despite the most challenging circumstances.
It has been more than 20 years since Ella first inspired me to imagine the possibility of flourishing for everyone. After studying history at Harvard, marrying my high school best friend, and working in the Los Angeles nonprofit sector, we packed our bags and moved to New Haven to complete my MBA at Yale. It was there that my husband Aaron and I co-founded Brio, and this adventure has plunged us into the uncertain, exhausting, and exhilarating throes of social entrepreneurship.
As Brio has grown, I have become convinced that collaborating with extraordinary leaders in marginalized communities to design liberatory systems change is one of the great honors of my life. And I have come to learn that healing is mutual, just like friendship, and I need our mission as much as our partners do. This work has helped me cultivate deeper compassion toward the sometimes devastating effects of mental illness, and to offer that compassion to myself and my own family. For it is in helping others find their freedom that we ourselves are found.