I am a certified grief support specialist and founder of Grieve Leave, a community that inspires grievers to intentionally take time to process the feelings that come with loss. You can find me featured in TIME, HuffPost, Newsweek, ABC, and ELLE, using my voice to help build a more grief-informed world. In 2021, I left a career that I loved to take a year to grieve. After a series of losses—the death of my mother to cancer when I was a child, the sudden death of my father in 2020, and the end of my marriage in a drawn-out divorce, I recognized that my mental health had taken a big toll. This led me to creating Grieve Leave, which has grown into something more than I ever could have imagined: today we’re a community of thousands. At Grieve Leave, we believe in welcoming everyone as they are— and even though it’s been taboo to talk about, feeling grief is so very normal. You can find us speaking with organizations large and small on how to create a more grief-informed workplace, we regularly connect with notable figures who have dealt with grief (and even went viral for making Adele cry), and we hold monthly Meet & Grieve events– our take on reinventing what grief support looks and feels like–in places like coffee shops, wellness studios, and online. Grief and grieving isn’t one size fits all, and Grieve Leave is here to help. Prior to founding Grieve Leave, I held roles in state and local government, as well as education. At the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, I advised on early childhood health, child welfare, and early learning. In 2020, I coordinated the statewide Covid response for pre-K-grade 12 schools, supported the development of statewide LatinX and higher education policies, and later led the strategy team at the Division of Child Development and Early Education.I previously served as the early childhood policy associate at the Chicago Mayor's Office, was an instructional coach for pre-K to 6th-grade teachers in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, and began my career as a bilingual kindergarten teacher. In all of these roles, I gained insights into the educational needs of diverse learners.I am a Durham, North Carolina native, and graduated from Duke University, Magna Cum Laude, with a BA in Spanish, History, and Political Science, and from the University of Chicago with a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and a certificate in Municipal Finance.I am passionate about supporting people through grief, and drawing from my background in policy and education to make a large-scale impact.