About Me
I find my joy in connecting people to resources. While pursuing a BM in Music Business from New York University, I created a nonprofit organization to connect local public schools to university students equipped to teach simple lessons in marketing and entrepreneurship. These lessons provided an innovative opportunity for schools to supplement the budget cuts to arts education with student-led art fundraisers.
My passions for connection and community continued into grad school at the University of Texas at Austin, where I co-founded a new student organization within the full-time MBA program. The Live Music Association now connects MBA students to music-affiliated businesses in Austin where they can apply their learnings and expertise to one of the city’s premier industries.
After returning home to the Richmond region in 2016, I quickly became involved with TEDxRVA. In 2017 & 2018, I organized the TEDxRVASalons, bringing small groups together to discuss subjects of interest to the local community. The salons were an opportunity to connect motivated individuals to organizations through which they could engage more directly with the issues. The salons covered a wide variety of topics such as urban planning, human trafficking, and social entrepreneurship.
My entrepreneurial spirit led to the creation of Miss Priss Tea, a mobile tea parlor providing elegant afternoon tea experiences in Central Virginia from February 2016 through December 2019. Through this small business, I quickly became acquainted with the female entrepreneurial scene in Richmond and was asked to lead a panel on community at the first Rebelle Con conference for women in 2017. I also used my expertise to teach entrepreneurship to high school students throughout the region by volunteering as a JA Launch Lesson Instructor with Junior Achievement.
From 2017 – 2019, I served as the project manager for the RVA East End Festival using my expertise in event production to once again help raise funds for public school arts education. Over $200K was donated to Richmond Public Schools from this annual event.
In 2020, I received Style Weekly’s Top 40 Under 40 recognition, most notably for my work as the Director of Communications and Programs for Leadership Metro Richmond. During my 5 years in that role, I fostered connection and community engagement amongst a diverse cross-section of leaders throughout the Richmond Region.
From Jan 2021 to May 2022, I served as the Ideator-in-Residence at VCU, where I taught a graduate-level course in Product Innovation. That role then led me to my current full-time position in product innovation and solutions for Boomi, where I connect processes, services, applications, and data through their cloud-based integration platform. My other current professional commitments include service on the Board of Directors for Better Housing Coalition,
By Black Richmond, and chair of the Community Advisory Board for VPM (Virginia's home for Public Media).
