I have worked in the professional theater industry since 1987 filling a variety of positions from stage management intern to Prop Master to Assistent Technical Director to Technical Coordinator to Director of Scenic Production and has landed at Scenic Solutions as the Senior Project Manager. COVID changed our world completely. During the lockdown, I spent many hours studying management styles and social justice issues. This awakening has led me embrace the need to change our industry from the inside out, one issue at a time, in a lasting and emphathic way. There is so much work to do and so much to learn and teach. We need to learn from the lessons COVID taught us, upholding the phrase, 'our people are our greatest assets.' Time to teach our industry, and many industries, that people get to have lives, raise their kids, care for their elders, and be paid a living wage. Time to LEARN the value of time off. Time to LEARN the intristic need for everyone to take care of themselve. I spent my life ignoring my physical and emotional needs always thinking that was for people who couldn't keep up. I couldn't have been more wrong. Self care is VITAL not just to our survival but for our ability to THRIVE. Who want to just survive when JOY, LOVE, ADVENTURE, and so many other EXPERIENCES are out there, waiting for us to engage?Every day I am trying to learn to be a better manager, better human, better partner, better mom, better daughter, better friend. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” -attributed to Maya Angelou"Loving oursevles through the process of owning our story is the bravest thing we will ever do." -Brene Brown