Member for
6 years
I am honored to work with the Institute’s leadership and colleagues to help bring our mission alive in a place-based way here in Southwest Michigan. I have the privilege of working in a highly collaborative manner with community stakeholders as well as our national partners. I am continually grateful that I get to work with amazing people doing visionary work, and I get to do so in service of a mission that is more relevant now than ever.
My entire career has been in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. Immediately before joining the Institute, I served as executive director of the Bronson Health Foundation. Prior to that, I was with Kalamazoo College and also held a leadership role with the Battle Creek Community Foundation. I’ve been called a generalist who can translate between specialists and suspect that skill comes from my early days working as a research librarian.
I have my bachelor’s degree is in Performing Arts History and master’s in Library and Information Science, both from the University of Illinois, and a Doctor of Education from Temple University. Outside of work, I am passionate about wholistic health, animal welfare, and the human-animal bond. My husband and I live in Oshtemo township where we are owned by our Newfoundland dog, Milo.