I’ve always been drawn to computers, although I didn’t even own one until my mid-20s. 

Growing up in the 80s, I begged my parents for an Atari or a computer, but the best I got was the use of my mom’s classroom computer — an Apple IIe — when she brought it home on occasion. I remember being glued to it, playing Othello, Oregon Trail, or using Print Shop. 

In 1992, I  went to college at Pepperdine University to become an English teacher, but instead found the world of publishing and design through the university’s weekly newspaper as a section editor. This brought me back to the Mac, as I began to become proficient in the layout and graphics software I needed to do my job. After graduation in 1996, I began working for publications such as Architectural Digest, and the Pottery Barn, Smith & Hawken and Dell catalogs as an art & production assistant and eventually, art director / graphic designer. 

In the early 2000s, I supported myself as a freelance graphic designer after a company I had been working for in San Francisco was bought out and shut down (Move.com). I felt like entrepreneurship was the first time a job had truly felt like a fit for my personality. While I would eventually go back to the corporate world out of necessity, I never forgot the joy and satisfaction that owning a business gave me, and vowed to come back to it someday. 

In 2006, After ten years working in design and advertising, I gave up my career to go back to my original love — teaching. I earned my California Single Subject teaching credential in 2006 from Dominican University, and taught English at Berkeley High School and Redwood High, both in the Bay Area. I enjoyed teaching — the best AND hardest job of my life — but craved a more one-on-one teaching experience than most schools had to offer. 

In 2015, after relocating to Bremerton, WA, and taking an “extended maternity leave,” I finally launched back into the world of entrepreneurship by combining two of my main areas of expertise — teaching and computer software/technology — into what has now become Digital Helpmates. 

In addition to running Digital Helpmates, I am an avid hiker and mushroom hunter, and enjoy raising my two teenagers, playing pickleball, and volunteering for Kitsap Computing Seniors in my spare time. (Hah.)