May 2024 – Oct 2025 · 1 yr 5 mos · San Jose, CA · Hybrid

• Family Therapy Center of Silicon Valley, sister center to Teen Therapy Center of Silicon Valley, was a mental health practice committed to working through areas of concern in your life, improving your relationships, and supporting you in creating a healthy and fulfilling life. We provided a warm, welcoming, and confidential environment in which individuals and relationship were able to grow and change. At Family Therapy Center, our therapists were dedicated to supporting you in reaching your ultimate goals. Our group practice and combined team of professionals had a diverse range of expertise and training to best fit your specific needs and concerns.
• Provided strong and inspiring leadership, fostering a collaborative and inclusive work environment, aligned with the company core values and ensuring they permeate all aspects of the organization.
• On-the-ground executive leadership on all aspects of day-to-day operations, including clinical services, talent recruitment and hiring, advertising, outreach, and financial management.
• Partnered with the CEO/Founder to develop and implement the organization's strategic plans, and long- and short-term goals and objectives, to achieve the mission of improving mental health in whole families.
• Served as the face of the company, representing the centers and developing strong relationships with key stakeholders, including clients and patients, vendors, referral sources, and the broader community.
• Hosted San Jose’s most highly anticipated mental health networking event to build and cultivate relationships with and between community members, referral sources and service delivery partners.
• Oversaw financial operations, including budgeting, payroll, reporting, and professional development for a team of 30 clinical, administrative, and client relations staff.

May 2024 – Jan 2025 · 8 mos · San Jose, CA · Hybrid

• The Healthy Brain Center, in partnership with Teen Therapy Center of Silicon Valley and Family Therapy Center of Silicon Valley, specialized in Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), a revolutionary non-invasive treatment that offers new possibilities for those who have not found relief from anxiety, depression, and OCD through traditional methods.

Jan 2016 – May 2024 · 8 yrs 4 mos · Windsor, Ontario, Canada · Hybrid

• Five/Fourteen is a service that matches LBGTQ2 youth in Ontario’s foster care system with LGBTQ2A foster parents in our program. We recruit members of the Queer community and allies who are committed to providing youth in care with the safe and supportive home everyone deserves.
• Co-develop and oversee execution of short- and long-term service and growth strategy and planning
• Develop and manage annual and monthly budgets, and perform day-to-day accounting, e.g., payroll, invoicing, bill payments, reconciliation
• Advise and support staff on client care and foster parents support, crisis management, strategic communications, and stakeholder engagement
• Write and review organizational policies and procedures, ensuring compliance with sector standards, jurisdictional laws and regulations, and human rights codes
• Represent the agency, its programs, and services with partner organizations, child welfare agencies, and government
• Liaise with government advisor and oversee annual inspection and program audits
• Recruit, screen, train and oversee training for employees and volunteers
• Key accomplishments:
• Co-founded and launched this innovative strengths-focused foster care agency, operating in multiple cities, providing service and support to teenagers at risk of homelessness from across Ontario, and to their foster families
• Grew the agency from the ground up, liaising with nearly 50 children’s aid societies and community service agencies, the government of Ontario, and countless external mental health, medical, and programming service providers
• Developed a policy and procedures manual, to meet and surpass legal and regulatory requirements and service standards, ensuring compliance with sector standards, jurisdictional laws and regulations, and human rights codes

Oct 2013 – Dec 2015 · 2 yrs 2 mos · Toronto, Canada Area

• Led team of 6 professionals with diverse skillsets in planning and crafting fundraising and alumni communications and stakeholder engagement strategies, including leading communications development for a successful $20-million gift proposal.
• Oversaw member benefit programs delivering $1.5 million in annual revenues.
• Provided strategic guidance to the senior leadership team of the Division of Advancement and other University executive.
• Collaborated across the Division and the University to support and further the positive reputation of York University among alumni and friends and in the broader community.

Jan 2013 – Oct 2013 · 9 mos · Toronto, Canada Area

• Identified, pursued, and cultivated key stakeholder relationships for mutual benefit to the University and local communities.
• Worked toward a five-year community relations strategic plan, collaborating across divisions to foster consensus on quantitative and qualitative objectives, set annual milestones, and build focus on advancing the University's mission and reputation.
• Managed, mentored, developed and supported a team of ten staff members, and manage a substantial budget under tightening financial conditions.
• Steered the University's Town & Gown Committee, including representation from multiple schools, student unions, the City of Toronto, and local homeowners.
• Represented the University and its interests on the City of Toronto Economic Development & Culture Division's post-secondary institutions committee.
• Inventoried community engagement activity across the University, towards furthering beneficial opportunities for pan-University collaboration, and identifying appropriate metrics for community relations activities.

Jun 2010 – Jan 2013 · 2 yrs 7 mos · Toronto, Canada Area

• Provided executive and team support on communications, especially regarding sensitive and high-risk issues, and advise managers and front-line staff on effective interpersonal and client service communication practices.
• Planned and implemented three-phase communications redesign, including developing new graphic and communication standards for the division, creating new internal and external promotional print materials, division and graduate program websites, and traditional and digital/web communications.
• Managed Graduate Studies website and 56 graduate program websites, and produced articles, website content, and speeches, and edited secondary content for internal and external publications.

Apr 2009 – May 2010 · 1 yr 1 mo · Toronto, Canada Area

• Delivered strategic communications expertise, stakeholder relations guidance and research services to diverse corporate, not-for-profit, crown-corporation and political clients.
• Collaborated with colleagues and clients to research, develop and execute integrated communications and persuasion campaigns around questions of reputation, public policy and issues management.
• Trained corporate and organizational spokespersons with one-on-one practical training, developing their ability to communicate with and through media, both traditional and social.
• Drafted, edited and revised myriad materials, such as proposals, reports, press releases, letters and branded and templated materials.
• Managed online community of 80,000 fans during a public persuasion campaign for a group of national and regional companies.
• Created a suite of communications products for a major Toronto firm that was effectively implemented in a successful campaign to repair reputational damage.
• Provided crisis management and communications expertise for a leading Canadian company regarding several large simultaneous product recalls.

Jun 2007 – Apr 2009 · 1 yr 10 mos · Toronto, Canada Area

• Liaised between Admissions and Recruitment to convert prospective students to fee paying students and to retain and build positive relationships with current students.
• Wrote project-based scripts to ensure proper branding and messaging, conformance to privacy regulations and support departmental and institutional goals.
• Trained staff on positive communication techniques and their role in student, parent, and public perception of the institution.
• Monitored and crafted responses to Sheridan related content in institutional, college system, social networking and media sites.
• Contributed to college-wide committee work on printed and electronic student communications, recruitment deliverables for full-time studies, meeting the goals of Ontario's Second Career Initiative, marketing to new immigrants and increasing use of web technologies for communication.
• Increased offers accepted by 15% and fee payments by 9% at the first deadlines.

Aug 2006 – May 2007 · 9 mos · Toronto, Canada Area

• Developed staff understanding and execution of their role in reaching student enrollment growth targets through client service, positive communications and public relations techniques.
• Created and delivered recruitment presentations to sway prospective students and students' influencers that Sheridan is their best educational destination.
• Contributed to the drafting, editing and revision of cross-college recruitment materials.

Jun 2003 – Present · 22 yrs 11 mos · Remote

• Hospitality & Service Excellence: With my proprietary front-line communication training system, PositiveSpeak, based on a stellar global hospitality program and tailored to your exact needs, we translate luxury service standards into actionable frameworks for your staff members in corporate and non-profit environments to ensure a consistent, high-touch "white-glove" experience.
• Perfect Public Messaging: Deliver public relations and media messaging training and ongoing coaching to executives and spokespersons for companies, causes, and nonprofits.
• Planning for Success: Help nonprofit and social enterprises succeed by clearing away distractions through facilitated strategic planning and objectives-setting .
• Guided a finance and banking executive to communicate her for-profit experience in nonprofit language, landing her an executive director position for a social cause she was passionate about.
• Trained spokespersons of a large nonprofit on how to handle public and media communications during a reputational crisis, keeping the board membership in place while correcting course.

Jan 2002 – Jan 2006 · 4 yrs · Toronto, Canada Area

• 2005 Recipient, Student Service Award
• 2005 Mentor, Emerging Global Leaders Program: Caribbean
• 2004 & 2005 Session Coordinator, Glendon 101
• 2004 Director, Glendon College Student Union
• 2004 Recipient, David McQueen Bursary for Contributions to Student Life
• 2003 – 2005 Host, Kaleidoscope on CHRY
• 2003 & 2004 Coordinator, Emerging Global Leaders Program
• 2003 – 2004 Recipient, York International Award for Outstanding Contributions to Internationalization
• 2003 Mentor, Emerging Global Leaders Program: Barbados
• 2003 Mentor, Emerging Global Leaders High School Program
• 2003 – 2004 Councillor, Glendon College Student Union
• 2002 – 2003 Participant, Emerging Global Leaders Program
• 2002 – 2006 Student Director, Friends of Glendon
• 2002 – 2006 Student Ambassador, Glendon College
• 2002 – 2006 Coordinator, Glendon International Club

Jan 2000 – Jan 2002 · 2 yrs · Syracuse, New York Area

• Supervised staff of more than 50 in two restaurants, hotel lobby bar, room service and banquet services and directly managed staff of 25 in the hotel lounge.
• Oversaw beverage operations, inventory and cost control, and responsible for alcohol regulation enforcement for all food and beverage services.
• Collaborated on the broader management team on a multi-million dollar renovation of all guest spaces of this 236-room facility.