My career has followed a consistent pattern: I walk into organizations at moments of complexity — a new initiative without an owner, a high-profile program without infrastructure, an institutional crisis that needs a steady hand — and I build what’s needed to move forward.
I did this at Georgetown University, where I was the first hire at a new institute whose launch received national attention and hosted multiple presidential candidates within its first months. I helped build the organization from the ground up, earning three promotions in three years. I did it during Georgia’s historic 2020 Senate runoff elections, where I began as a volunteer building operational systems that didn’t exist, was hired to formalize and scale them, and grew the program to nearly 1,000 volunteers delivering 17.5 million voter contacts in a single month. And I’ve done it at Emory University, where I’ve managed budgets of up to $1.8M, designed a three-year engagement strategy that reshaped programming, digital content, and brand positioning for the university’s $4B comprehensive campaign, led programs across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, and am currently Leading a series of high-profile events introducing a new university president to top institutional stakeholders, including trustees and principal gift donors.
What ties it all together is a particular combination of skills: strategic vision and operational precision, held at the same time. I think in long-range strategy and I also think in timelines, budgets, and logistics. A mentor once described my specific talent as “the skilled management of people to complete a complex task — without alienating people.” I’d add one thing: I bring genuine warmth, energy, and joy to the hardest work in an organization, and people come out of it glad they were in the room. I use an organization’s most defining moments — leadership transitions, milestone events, institutional crises — to strengthen its brand and galvanize the teams doing the work.
I bring genuine warmth, energy, and joy to the hardest work in an organization, and people come out of it glad they were in the room.
A native Georgian — eighth generation — I grew up splitting time between Atlanta and Tokyo, where I spent more than seven years. I hold an Executive Master’s in Global Strategic Communications from Georgetown University — an intensive program designed to prepare senior leaders to serve as trusted advisors and strategic integrators in complex, global organizations. Outside of work, I serve as an ordained Ruling Elder at Trinity Presbyterian Church, where I also sing in the choir, and I love to read and review what I read at HopefulHanna.com.
