My mom was always very artistic. She was a big journaler and did a lot of sewing and textile crafts all throughout our childhood. When I was a kid, I painted a lot. Then, in middle school, I started to crochet. And that blossomed into me loving anything with thread and needles. In high school, I also got involved in theater. I did a lot of stage managing and behind-the-scenes stuff. Theater just always felt like home. My older sister was in it, my younger sister was in it. And we loved our theater teacher, she was like the fun aunt that pops up at Christmas parties. She was great and really supportive.

Summer after my sophomore year of college, she passed away. I was majoring in psychology at the time but wasn’t sure if it was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I was toying with switching my major already, and I decided I’m just going to do theater! I didn’t really know what I was going to do with it, but I knew at the time that is what I needed to do.

Now, I like to work art into every job that I do, even if it’s not specifically related to art. Getting to work specifically with an art programming board and with an arts umbrella organization in this job, that is the dream! I’ve always been surrounded by art, so this felt natural.