I have had a meaningful and successful career in higher education. I loved it because it fed my lifelong learning and fueled my focus on relationships. Connections are my passion and finding that purpose in my capstone career inspires and motivates me each day.While Director of the Office of Student Involvement at the University of Louisville, I believe my most important role was to support and challenge the talented team members I led. Investing in my staff as people with lives outside their work and a desire to succeed within their jobs drove me to want to be better for them. What I got further away from as my positions grew in responsibility were the students. I valued being a resource and mentor to them as well as being able to cut through the institutional red tape to make their lives just a little bit easier. What I am most proud of are the programs that we created to support our students' extracurricular development while working with very few financial resources. I led the team that created living learning communities, a leadership development retreat weekend, a sophomore leadership program, an alternative service break program and a student organization advisory board. I am also proud of my persistence in bringing Clifton Strengths Finder to as many students, staff and faculty as possible and spending hours preparing and presenting workshops across campus and beyond. Finally, outside of my formal duties I took on the inaugural role of chair of the Professional Development Committee for Student Affairs at the University of Louisville. This role harnessed the resources I had accumulated to benefit staff beyond those in my purview. I remain committed to employee support and development as critical to success for any organization.So why leave UofL and move all the way across the country? So many factors went into that decision but it was so easy to make when I realized that there was something else I was meant to do in my life. And I wasn't going to find it by playing it safe in my comfortable job and a community that I loved. Now I am living a simplified life in a tiny house on wheels after shedding material belongings that were not supporting my goals. I am willing to try and fail, and try again. I believe in people and the power of connection. And I make things in my life and my work using ideas, research, collaboration, my head and my hands.https://trello.com/b/mshElIqwClifton Strengths Finder: Deliberative / Consistency / Learner / Input / RelatorMBTI: ISTJ