Welcome!

Let’s make some introductions to get this party started! I am the very happy Vice-President of Human Resources and General Counsel at a non-profit association. Getting to this point, though, wasn’t easy, and I spent years as a demoralized and miserable attorney.

I was sworn into the Illinois state bar back when women were still a definite minority in the profession. Back then, being a “minority” didn’t faze me. I had absorbed the too-common refrain that women could do it all, women would have it all. I thought I should be turning the legal world with my smile (a la, Mary Richards, of course) – but that was about as far away from my truth as possible. That reality made me feel like I had either (1) completely misjudged my professional potential (to paraphrase Elaine Benes from Seinfeld, “Is it possible I’m not as professionally attractive as I think I am?”) or (2) I had made a horrible mistake when I decided to be an attorney.

It took a long time, and I made a lot of mistakes. Now I’m ready to share some things I’ve learned on my career journey. I’m ready to build a community so we can support each other.