I was born into my family's
lobster and seafood business

...and some of my earliest memories are of working alongside my family. By the age of seven, I was packing salt fish and building fish boxes. By thirteen, I was cleaning the offices. At sixteen, I was managing our retail division. After attending business college in Fredericton, I became Chief Financial Officer at just twenty-five before going on to serve as Partner, CFO, and Succession Planner, helping guide our family business and its partners through succession and into its next chapter.

Those 30 years taught me something I'll never forget.

Leadership isn't learned from a textbook. It's built through difficult conversations, financial decisions, people challenges, and showing up every day when others are counting on you.

That foundation eventually led me in a very different direction.

For the past seven years, I've had the privilege of serving as the Founder and Executive Director of Aidaen's Place Youth Support Hub in Yarmouth, walking alongside youth, families, and community partners to strengthen mental health and wellbeing.

Although the industries have changed, the work hasn't.

I've spent my life helping people navigate challenge, build trust, and lead through change. Whether I'm working with a CEO, a frontline supervisor, a parent, or a young person finding their footing, I've learned that the challenges are remarkably similar. We all need better communication. Clearer boundaries. Greater consistency. And the resilience to keep leading when life gets hard.

For years, I believed that if I just worked harder, gave more, and held everything together, everything would be okay.

On the outside, I looked steady. Inside, I was running on fumes.

In 2019, my life shattered when I lost my only child, Aidaen, to suicide. That loss forced me to see what grit could never give me: a way to keep living, leading, and loving without collapsing.

In those darkest days, I learned that resilience isn't about pushing through. It's about resting, resetting, and renewing so you can keep showing up. I learned to communicate differently, in ways that built trust instead of draining me. I learned to set boundaries I'd never dared voice before, protecting the energy I had left. And I discovered the quiet strength of consistency, the small daily practices that helped me rebuild one step at a time.

Those four practices, communication, boundaries, consistency, and resilience, changed everything. They became not just survival tools, but the way I lead, the way I live, and the way I help others who aren't broken... they're stretched too thin.

Today, I bring together business leadership, lived experience, and evidence-based practice to help organizations, leaders, families, and communities build resilience that lasts.

I'm a Certified Resilience Coach (CRC), specializing in resilience for organizations, teams, families, and youth, and a Certified Youth Wellbeing Coach (CYWC). As a Workplace Education Initiatives Practitioner with Labour, Skills and Immigration, I facilitate courses in business, leadership, and financial management. I'm also a certified safeTALK instructor, helping strengthen suicide awareness and prevention across Nova Scotia.

Speaking is one of the ways I bring One Toolbox Leadership™ to life. As a proud member of Speakers Nova Scotia, I deliver keynotes, workshops, and leadership development sessions for organizations, conferences, and communities across the province. Every presentation, workshop, and leadership program I offer is designed, written, and developed by me. Nothing is off the shelf. Every resource is built from lived experience, evidence-based practice, and the One Toolbox Leadership™ framework.

My commitment to mental health extends beyond my professional work. I'm a founding member of Nova Scotia Moms for Collaborative Mental Health Care, a member of the Integrated Youth Services (IYS) Anchor Youth Space Provincial Caregiver Advisory Team, and I serve on my local Anchor Youth Space Caregiver Committee. These roles reflect my belief that meaningful change happens when people come together to strengthen the systems that support our youth, families, and communities.