I am a visionary grounded in realism.

I grew up on a farm in the middle-of-nowhere Manitoba. I suspect that wandering and dreaming in between the vast openness of land and sky stoked my insatiable desire to know more and be more.

I was never not reading a book, and all my teachers told me I would one day be a writer or maybe an editor.

I am analytical yet creative.

In 2005, I graduated from Lethbridge Community College with a perfect GPA in journalism, thinking this would be a career where I could write and create while feeding my endless curiosity to learn (and get paid for it!).

That outstanding two-year diploma program gave me the biggest set of transferable skills I could have ever hoped to acquire, including:

• researching
• critical thinking
• interviewing
• storytelling
• people managing
• wordsmithing
• design
• photography
• Adobe CS

To this day, I am grateful for the diversity of that education, because, after several years of working as a reporter and freelance writer, I realized that trying to write for a living was not the best fit for me.

I am a detail-oriented big-picture thinker.

I took on editing jobs and used my communications skills in service of the sustainable building industry in Regina (where I was living at the time). I went so far as to acquire my certification as a Sustainable Building Advisor and even contemplated a shift into interior design. But the end of a relationship sent me in another direction.

I landed in Victoria at Royal Roads University where, in 2013, I graduated with my BA in Professional Communication in the top 10% of my class.

I stayed in Victoria because of Raino Dance, a studio where an adult like me, with zero experience in dance of any kind, could learn how to move and perform and express. But my dance story is another story.

I see patterns and systems and relationships and flow.

My most valuable takeaways from the intense 12-month program at RRU were an understanding of the strategic planning process and learning about the foundational theories and models for how and why we humans communicate.

Ultimately, it is the psychological underpinnings of both communications and design that fascinate me and empower my work to achieve results.

When we understand how people think and why they believe what they do, and when we are more curious about that than threatened by it, we are more likely to connect with them.

I am driven to make life meaningful and have an impact.

After several years of working in Victoria in government (provincial and local), I made the move to full-time consulting and launched my own business in the hope it would allow me to give more, do more and live more.

I am here because I have to make a difference. My purpose is the betterment of myself, my craft, my clients, my collaborators, and, yes, the world. My desire is a planet where all individuals experience fulfillment and are treated with compassion.

I do this because I am confident that clear communications and thoughtful design can make life easier, more equitable and more connected.

Photo by Rachel Penner