I have an insatiable curiosity and want to soak everything up, and I have always juggled a feeling of being both artistic as well as business-minded—wanting to inspire, tell stories and take action. Balancing these two seemingly juxtaposed mindsets has helped me find my own unique way. In many ways, my three majors seem disparate, but I was hoping that by diving deep into journalism and communications to explore the way we connect with each other and document the world around us, and then blend this with my love of drama, writing, art and aesthetics, I would become some sort of cultural artist. It gave me a sense of freedom and boundless potential to create a future that was open to my own interpretation and not stuck on one path.

I have always been a storyteller. I was a young columnist for our college paper, a journalist for the Irish Times, a playwright and a poet. I grew up writing and reading and reciting great works, and was obsessed with great speeches. While in college, we would all get ready to go out together, everyone listening to music and sharing clothes, and I remember closing my door and putting on the speeches that would excite me. My friends would just laugh. Sarah Lawrence was an opportunity to focus on these passions. I received a scholarship to attend while still an undergrad and spent a summer with some of the most brilliant playwrights and directors. It was an incredible experience that taught me how to record experience and understand the ways humans communicate. As a playwright, you spend so much time getting into people’s heads to understand motivation, which taught me that you can relate to anyone and negotiate anything if you take the time to figure out someone’s strongest need and where they are coming from. 

When I started exploring jobs and thinking about my career, it was clear that I wanted to help to tell stories (no surprise there), but not to entertain as much as to inspire. I am passionate about how new ideas, thoughts and stories can shift culture, impact the world and make a difference. I started my career as a journalist, and found using storytelling as an avenue for change as the backbone to my work. I quickly realized that I could only do so much alone. As a journalist listening, recording, investigating people and the news, I realized that if I shifted this into other mediums like film, I could expand the influence to generate awareness on the most pressing issues of our time to make the world a better place. At Dermalogica, I merge these avenues for change to create innovative solutions, social impact campaigns and grassroots partnerships. My dream is to help women around the world tell their stories, sharing the challenges they have overcome in efforts to inspire the next generation, because in that collective experience, we learn and move forward together.

I have worked across many aspects of the creative industry. The time I spent in public affairs and advocacy for Lifetime Television, part of A+E Networks, was focused on using both media campaigns and celebrities’ voices to advocate for issues affecting women and their families across the country. Using the influence of television and the entertainment industry, I was able to work with hundreds of non-profit organizations, women leaders, public officials, talent and key members of the media to elevate the voices of women everywhere. I was lucky enough to work with the White House to advocate for girls’ mentorship with First Lady Michelle Obama, and helped steward the only bi-partisan 2012 Presidential election initiative to engage women in the political process. As the leader in this space, we were able to work with the top organizations and influencers, which I realized later was an invaluable education into what really works and what doesn’t in partnership and coalition building. Now, in my current work, I can quickly weed out the organizations that aren’t completely aligned with us to focus on the best strategic partners for global, national and local impact. The key is quality over quantity.

As Director of Global Impact for LA-based skin care brand, Dermalogica, the number one professional skin care company, I oversee Dermalogica’s social impact initiatives and run their foundation, Financial Independence Through Entrepreneurship (FITE), which seeks to empower women and support entrepreneurship. In this role, I have the unique opportunity to think about how a brand can make a positive impact in the world by creating on-the-ground programs in partnership with non-profit organizations to economically empower women. We work hard to connect our consumer and over 1,000 global employees to FITE, generating awareness for the issues and engaging them in the programs.  

The founder of Dermalogica, Jane Wurwand, launched FITE after reading Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s Half the Sky in partnership with Kiva, to help women who want to start businesses have access to small loans. Inspired by the program, I came on board two years later to help grow these efforts to include education and vocational training, as well as leadership skills for girls. At Dermalogica, we work with over 100,000 women entrepreneurs who are salon owners and skin therapists, so for the next phase of FITE, we are focusing on combining what we do well as a skin care company with our social impact work through FITE. Stay tuned for the launch of our new program this summer! 

My days vary entirely, depending on the time of year and my travel schedule! We just finished one of our busiest months, with International Women’s Day celebrations happening all over the world. During times like that, I am on all hours of the day, and I focus on being present and thoughtful about our work as I represent FITE in the global development space and oversee about 30 events, conferences and partnerships. This is balanced by a few weeks on the ground, where my schedule is more traditional and I can catch up on everything on the home front—rest and exercise, tackling the overwhelming inbox, updating the team at headquarters and working on the launch of our new program.

That’s a great question. This year, I spoke on a panel at SXSW on tying social good initiatives to a company’s bottom line, which is the direction I would like to see all of this work go in. I don’t think we should think of it as corporate social “responsibility,” but instead as something essential to staying strategic and relevant as a brand today. When CSR departments are operating outside of the companies’ interests, they often become irrelevant to the core business strategy—you have to be meeting regularly with the CFO, CEO, Head of Marketing, Head of Product Development to make sure that what you are creating makes sense to the brand. This way, your programs will have long-lasting success that will be held to the same strategic standards and be valued throughout the company. 

I wanted to help tell the stories of our tribe—the wide network of skin therapists, salon owners, etc. all connected to Dermalogica. We had been gathering the stories of the women and girls we were working with through FITE when I realized that, by combining this with our own tribe’s stories, we could create a movement to inspire others to follow their dreams and make a difference in their communities. The best part was when I realized that these women were the story of FITE—financially independent entrepreneurs taking care of their families, leading their communities and empowering the other women in their lives. I think of the salon as a beehive, a place where women gather to tell stories and connect with each other. I hope to help these active community hubs become a hub for women entrepreneurs all over the world to come together and act as a focal point for programs, education and resources for women.  

We are excited about a new social media challenge we launched to encourage all those inspired by FITE to tell us of a woman in your life who helped you become a better person, to see a brighter future and to pursue your goals. We are asking everyone to share her photo @joinFITE, tag #WhyWeFITE and visit us at www.joinfite.org to see women from around the world who motivate us each day.

I realized the power of elevating one voice after my work with a young woman in South Africa named Busi, who was one of the first women in her rural village to go to University in Cape Town. Funding her education scholarship through FITE, I was inspired by her dedication to give back in her own community, to go home and inspire her friends and family to follow their dreams. Since her graduation, we have stayed in touch. She was so inspired by FITE that she is now trying to launch a company in South Africa to build up the women in her area who want to start businesses and become entrepreneurs. This is a significant shift from past developmental models focused on one-sided philanthropy to embrace a new level of collaboration, coaching and innovation to make change together.

Technology has changed global development. When emerging markets have access to online and mobile communication, banking, markets and education, we not only reach more people, but understand their needs better. We can connect with individuals and organizations that used to seem so far away and distant from our own lives, that are now much more familiar and close to home. Through our partnership with Kiva, we have been able to provide microloans to over 50,000 women online, across more than 70 countries, to help them start and grow businesses. It’s truly amazing!

That the work is only to “do good.” Words like charity, responsibility and philanthropy are outdated—this is about smart business and being conscious that we live in an interconnected global society and economy. Creating a better future where all people thrive is what will truly sustain us and increase opportunity across the board. 

I am definitely the person who sees the glass as half full, but I’m not naive. I am naturally a solution-oriented person, so rather than focusing on the issues, I look to the potential of where we can go. I want to see more focus put on working together on positive change than dwelling on past problems. By seeing people for their potential and focusing on global solutions, we shift the energy from “doing good for someone” to “living well together.”