There are moments in a career that feel less like a decision and more like a natural next step; where everything you’ve built, learned, and worked toward seems to quietly point you in a new direction.

For me, that moment came after nearly a decade with Cherokee Nation Entertainment. It was a chapter I’m deeply grateful for, one that took me from media buying to leading enterprise marketing digital transformation initiatives and directing multimillion-dollar projects. The growth I experienced there, both professionally and personally, is something I’ll carry with me always.

And it’s exactly that growth that brought me to IA, ready for what comes next.

The Work That Shaped Me

My career has taken me across a few different worlds – financial services, nonprofit, and the hospitality industry, to name a few. Each one taught me something different, but they all reinforced the same truth early on. The fundamentals of good work, like accountability, communication, and follow-through, don’t change based on the sector you’re in.

That foundation carried me to Cherokee Nation Entertainment, where I spent nine years growing from a media buyer into someone leading enterprise-scale digital transformation. Over time, I grew into roles where I was directing website re-architectures, launching the organization’s first customer mobile app, and ultimately leading a seven-figure digital transformation initiative.

But what I learned along the way had very little to do with platforms or metrics.

The real education was in people. In the relationships between marketing teams and IT departments who spoke entirely different languages. In the patience required to bring a skeptical stakeholder along on a decision they didn’t initially understand. In the discipline it takes to hold a team accountable to a timeline while still leaving room for the unexpected, because in digital transformation, the unexpected is guaranteed.

I learned that the most important skill in project management isn’t managing projects. It’s managing change. And change is almost never a technical problem.

What I’m Excited to Bring to IA

I’ve spent most of my career on the inside, living through transformations as an employee and not just overseeing them as an advisor. I know what it feels like to be in the middle of an initiative that’s behind schedule, or to be the person in the room trying to explain to leadership why a vendor recommendation didn’t go as planned.

That perspective matters. Empathy for the client –is something I intend to carry into every engagement, not just for their goals, but for the human experience of navigating change.

At IA, I’m stepping into a Project Manager role that feels like a natural extension of everything I’ve built. The opportunity to bring my experience to multiple organizations, across different industries and challenges, is genuinely energizing. I believe my experience with stakeholder alignment, cross-functional collaboration, keeping complex initiatives moving without losing sight of the people they affect translate across context.

On Taking the Leap

I won’t pretend the decision to leave an organization I’d been with for nearly a decade was easy. There’s comfort in familiarity, and there’s real weight in stepping away from a place and people you’ve invested deeply in.

But I’ve learned that growth rarely happens inside of comfort. Clarity of vision, disciplined execution, and the willingness to embrace uncertainty – principles I’ve applied to organizational transformation – apply just as much to personal ones.

I chose IA because of what the firm represents: thoughtful, people-centered work that leaves organizations better than it found them. That’s a mission I can get behind completely.

I’m grateful for the experiences that brought me here, and I’m looking forward to what we’ll build together.