Nearly twenty years ago, ToyBox started with a phone. Not a laptop, because I couldn’t afford one yet. One of my first clients handed me my first computer, and I still have it today. I started ToyBox while figuring out what came next, newly a mother to a child with special needs, living on a fixed income, and trusting the work would find me. And it did. Over the years it looked like a hundred different things: small businesses and blogs, Seattle nightlife and entertainment, the hip hop and urban community, restaurants and retail, and nonprofits led by professional athletes. It looked like going back to school for my degree and certificate. It looked like working in schools alongside my son, taking my breaks when he took his, as support staff and then a one on one paraprofessional for students with special needs at Madrona and Stevens. It looked like the YMCA, where I walked in a minimum wage lifeguard and walked out a senior director with national and global leadership credentials and national recognition for my work in aquatics. It looked like serving as COO of a community organization built around social justice. It looked like coaching swim at Garfield through the pandemic, then boys and girls water polo at Sammamish and Interlake after moving to Bellevue. And it looked like service at nearly every level of government, from the City of Bellevue and King County to the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and Washington State Commerce.
Today it looks like being selected across ten professional areas of the City of Seattle’s consulting pool, joining 4Culture’s Network of Support to bring operations and capacity building to their grantees, and earning my QuickBooks certification to strengthen the financial capacity of the organizations I serve. It also looks like serving on the boards of KEEP, SPLASHForward, the Bellevue Chamber, and The Sophia Way. Woven through all of it, for as long as I can remember, has been young people: coaching, mentoring, and leading in youth activities. At 44, I’ll let that part speak for itself, but if we have shared one of those moments, drop it in the comments so we can hold that memory together.
At the center of everything is the same thing: I love helping people succeed and feel good about who they are. The last two years were some of the hardest, figuring out where I belong in community, and now I have my answer. I belong here, as a leader, among peers I deeply respect.
For nearly twenty years I have quietly done “the work,” the kind that lives in the systems, the operations, and the middle of the mess. So to have it amplified like this feels really good. Runner-Up, Best of the Northwest 2026. I’m thankful, proud, and honored to be counted among so many I admire. There is more ahead: this August I’m hosting an event to celebrate the entrepreneurs of our region, and I would love for you to join me. More details soon.