Who Am I?
Funny thing… I often ask myself this question. Like you, I’ve been through difficult times. I’ve made mistakes. I get tripped up by my own resistance. And like you, I keep showing up. Why? Because I’ve learned a lot over the years. I have discovered some powerful tools and practices for healing and growth. I’ve developed some strategies for taking courageous action.
As a lifelong spiritual seeker, I found the corporate world to be very harsh. But I stayed because it was the best way to support my family. Now I feel that many of us in the corporate world are waking up. I believe that if we step into our power with an open heart, we can make a positive difference in the world.
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LOVE@WORK
For years I lived two lives. On the one hand, I was the good corporate citizen with a passion for using data science to improve business results. However, in my private life I was (and still am) a passionate spiritual seeker looking for ways to serve and make a positive difference in the world.
Now I am out of the closet, so to speak. I’m embracing love as a way of being that benefits both our businesses and our personal lives. I’m proving, using data, that love is good for business. And I am a champion for all of us showing up fully from a place of deep self-love and in deep connection with ourselves, each other, and the world at large.
My Story
My life story is an interesting mix of joy and tragedy. I was born in Hershey, Pennsylvania – which legitimizes my chocolate addiction. I am the third daughter of loving parents. At age 5, my world changed dramatically when my father died in a plane crash. My grieving mother went to work full-time. So in many ways, I lost both parents at that time. While my basic needs were met, my family was never the same. We didn’t know how to handle the grief. And we were on our own a lot. So I spent a lot of my childhood figuring things out for myself.
At age 19, I spent nine months in the hospital following a near-fatal car accident. I had to learn to walk again. The next year, my mother died of cancer. This dual trauma threw me into a lifelong quest for physical, mental, and emotional health.
From an early age, my creative mind led to an inability to concentrate. So reading anything longer than a short story was a challenge. Luckily, math came easily. So that became my official area of study.
I was also a very curious child. My interest in paranormal activities and higher levels of consciousness led to my lifelong dedication to spiritual growth.
And finally, I am a cancer survivor and a widow. I am the mother of three wonderful adult children, and a grandmother of two adorable grandchildren. So you can see why I want to help make the world a better place.
Corporate (ish) Bio
I feel that I am an even mix of left brain (data scientist) and right brain (intuitive, writer, artist, teacher). My long career as a data scientist inspired my passion for a new kind of leadership. Now I am moving into more right-brain, intuitive work/play.
Early in my data science career, I developed creative ways to build predictive models which I shared in Data Mining Cookbook (Wiley 2001). Over the years that followed, I noticed how human competencies were becoming increasingly important drivers of success. I researched several areas such as communication, collaboration and leadership. I unveiled links between our global economy, organizational dynamics, and complexity science, highlighted in my second book, Business Intelligence Success Factors (Wiley/SAS, 2009).
In 2012, I was invited by SAS to write another technical book. I hesitated because I really wanted to write about love in business. But I knew I was not quite ready. I worried that I might risk my reputation as a data scientist. I figured that the SAS book would strengthen my credibility among a new generation of data scientists. So I agreed to write a book for SAS if I could include a section in each chapter about the importance of human skills for business success. The book (title below*) won Best of Show at the Carolina Technical Book competition in 2015. I was told it was because I anticipated the needs of the analyst by including my research on the human skills.
I’ve played with data and trained people at some big companies including Cisco, Clorox, Walmart, Wells Fargo, Fleet Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Genentech, Sprint, State Farm, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, Providian, HP, IBM, SAS, and Xerox.
In 2018, I wrote and published LOVE@WORK and the companion book, The LOVE@WORK MethodTM. Visit the Books page [click] for more information.
Stay connected to hear about our new project – Your Wisdom Institute. More soon!
Thank you! I love you!
[*Third book title – Business Analysis Using SAS® Enterprise Miner® and SAS® Enterprise Guide®, A Beginner’s Guide – you can stop yawning now! LOL!]