It’s more important to understand someone than to judge them. We think the first step to understanding someone is asking them the fundamental questions about who they are and how they became the person they are today. Understanding and empathy are essential building blocks for a better, more compassionate world. We’re incredibly fortunate to be able to ask these questions each week through our interview series. Below you’ll find inspiring interviews from throughout Oregon.
Sureeporn Tattumle
my husband Kris and I spent over a decade working as flight attendants. Traveling extensively across Far East Asia and Australia didn’t just give us a passion for aviation; it exposed us to diverse street foods, regional flavors, and traditional family recipes. We always dreamed of translating those mid-flight experiences and global flavors into a dining environment of our own. Read more>>
Kathleen Krohn
My first career is as a massage therapist, which I began at age 25. By age 37 I was well aware that physical healing would not help some people due to the emotional hurt that had occurred at some point. Read more>>
Shira Allen
I Got started in the Beauty Industry in 2008 where i attended beauty school at the Aveda Institute in Portland. After graduating in 2009 i got my first job in the industry at a salon in Lake Oswego. I started out as a receptionist and salon assistant learning so much about how to not only do hair but learn how to run a salon. Read more>>
Warren Kahn
Over 40 years ago I was going through a difficult marriage. A friend of mine recommended taking the More to Life Weekend then called the Life Training. Read more>>
NATASHA SALEM
My husband and I moved to Oregon from Colorado chasing everything outdoors — rock climbing, hiking, camping. Once we got here, I needed a creative outlet to match that pull toward the wild, and outdoor photography was it. I’ve been shooting for about four years now, but the last two are really when I started digging in and seriously learning the craft. Read more>>
Lauren Cattolico
My real name might be Lauren, but to all my friends they know me as Lola. I may be aging myself a bit but, I got that nickname from the bunny in Space Jam; Lola Bunny. I used to be an avid basketball player. AAU to college camps, to Varsity in High School. Read more>>
Brooke Weeber
I’ve used photography as a creative outlet for as long as I can remember, but it didn’t become a focus of mine until about a decade ago. I was running 2 businesses simultaneously, illustration and photography. I was shooting for brands and social media and drawing and selling stationary out of a home studio. Read more>>
Julie Striewski
As an elementary educator for over 20 years, I have noticed many families ask what more they can do to help their child succeed in reading, but then become discouraged when they can’t afford services. I have seen parents desperate to help their child succeed but not know where to turn. Read more>>
Bryan Berkey
I started my journey into the Shoe Repair Industry when I was at a time of transition in career options. Read more>>
Rachel Wood
I started making art when I was just a teenager but began actually taking my art more seriously during college, where I minored in art, while earning my nursing degree. I started painting for myself in 2015, just to dabble a bit more and see what I could produce. Read more>>
Trinia Cuseo
Hinterland starting in 2013, initially doing screen printing commercially for other folks as well as putting stuff we wanted to wear – our quirky and irreverent original designs – on American-made t-shirts. As the business grew, I branched out to other so-called ‘soft goods’ as well as stickers, accessories and artist-made housewares and jewelry. Read more>>
Matt Rickmon
My name is Matt Rickmon, founder of Tuff Luv Creations. That is my art collective piece of my new adventure, A Hope For Better Days. I grew up around theatres and supporting non-profits since I was young. I always had a love for stories and all type of creative play. Read more>>
Jess DuBose
I took a very winding path to becoming an ADHD coach. One of the earliest threads started in 2008, when I was studying music education in college. I walked into an education class one day and everything was unusually distracting. Someone was vacuuming in the hallway. People kept sneezing loudly, getting up, throwing things away. Lights were turning on and off. Read more>>
Joshua Corder
I worked as a framing carpenter for 15 years and went back to school in 2012 when a military deployment to Iraq made available some education funding. After earning my nursing degree from Clatsop Community College I went to work in the local emergency department where I spent 6 years, then 2 years as a nursing supervisor and 2 years in oncology/infusions. Read more>>
Megan Watson
Growing up with a dad who was a business owner, entrepreneurship was always part of my normal. I knew early on that I wanted to be self-employed, but I had no idea what that business would actually look like. That answer came after I offered to help with a friend’s wedding. Read more>>
Savina Lara
Growing up in a single paycheck household I was always taught to use what I had around me. I think this is where my collage story begins. Instead of buying birthday cards, my mom used to make them for me out of paper and marker, cutting out magazine spreads of toys or cartoons that I liked. Read more>>
Ryan Blake
I’m a brand strategist, content creator, advertiser, and storyteller going on 20 years. In many ways, my story really starts with my Dad and my uncle. Before I was born, my dad worked at J. Walter Thompson, one of the very first and most influential advertising agencies in history. Read more>>
Wade Sewell
I started tattooing in 2017 in Eugene Oregon. In 2022 I moved to coosbay to be closer to family, and after working with some people in the area, I eventually decided open my own business to give my clients, and the artists who want to work with me, a clean and peaceful environment to do so. Read more>>
Joel Conroy
Lil’ Planets began in 2012 as a creative experiment with photography, perspective, and the places around me. I was fascinated by 360° photography and the idea that I could take a real, familiar landscape and transform it into an entirely new world. Read more>>
Amber Brennan
As soon as I was legally allowed to, I got my worker’s permit and got a job working at my favorite restaurant. I was only 15 but I started learning about customer service and the difference between a great experience and a disappointing one. After I graduated high school, I studied abroad in Japan. Read more>>
Jason Kundell
I grew up in Southern California from a very artistic family and was very involved in the graffiti and skateboarding subculture of LA in the 80s and early 90s. In the early 90s, I moved to San Francisco and was doing a lot of art in a very cool time of the city. Read more>>
Lexi Combs
In April 2020, we found ourselves living in an 8ft trailer under a tree. My boyfriend at the time, Portland native Perry Combs, and I were working at Riverhouse BBQ when the pandemic hit. Riverhouse sat just outside Yellowstone National Park in Montana, and like so many businesses, it was shut down indefinitely. Read more>>
Sherrie Graves
My passion for photography began in high school when I enrolled in a photography class. My very first picture was taken with a homemade pinhole camera fashioned out of an oatmeal box. But I soon upgraded to a used Pentax K1000. I loved every moment, thrilled to capture candid moments of family and friends. Read more>>
Debbie Fery
We are started with a grow tent we bought on Facebook marketplace and thought what can we do with it!. We were not thinking about being a farmer’s market vendor until we saw what we could do with some lights, water and good soil and good seeds, we outfitted the tent, planted seeds and watched them grow. We added tents and grew more. Read more>>
Sierra lavelle
My story really begins long before Mindful Bend. I earned my degree in International Affairs, and my love for humanitarian work started when I was just 17, when I traveled to Rwanda, Africa, to volunteer. That experience had a profound impact on me and began a lifelong connection to service and international humanitarian efforts. Read more>>
Robin Bergeron
My journey into this work began as a parent looking for help. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, but in late 2013, our family moved to Houston, Texas. At the time, two of my children were struggling with high-risk behaviors and substance use. Read more>>
Michelle Varga
My husband, Eain, and I opened Body Mind Soul Studios in July of 2021 with a vision that went far beyond simply creating a successful tattoo and beauty studio. We wanted to build a place where talented independent professionals could grow their own businesses while being part of a collaborative environment centered around creativity, compassion, and community. Read more>>
Brooke Gardner
My Instagram cooking page actually started as a personal food journal. I wanted a place to keep track of what I was making so I could easily go back and remake my favorite recipes. Then COVID hit, and I started learning more into what was actually in the food we were eating. Read more>>
BJ Hesketh
In the 80’s I kept asking myself ‘Why am I still working for other people/companies? Surely I’m smart enough to be able to start my own business!!’ I really disliked sitting at a desk for 8-10 hours. I’d taken a couple of folks in my neighborhood, to the Dr’s, and the airport. My love of driving proved to be the catalyst to start me off. Read more>>
Perry Callas
When I graduated from high school, tired of sitting in classrooms, I worked as a landscaper, a commercial painter, and general construction worker for five years. I sweated alongside people who had great skills but who often told me they wished they had got more education. Read more>>
Marilee Valkass
The name of our organization is Dogpac.org. Dogpac is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the health and enjoyment of dogs and their humans through the provision of off-leash recreation opportunities in Central Oregon. Dogpac was founded in the early 2000’s when the population of Bend, OR began its rapid ascent. Read more>>
Suzanne Fortino
My journey into the RV rental business began almost by accident. Around 2018, while I was living in Idaho, my cousin and best friend, Lori—who is now my business partner and co-owner of Sweet Dreams RV Rentals—asked me to help with her annual August camping trip. After years of tent camping, Lori was ready for something more comfortable. Read more>>
Charlotte Roy
I was born and raised in Germany. I always had a thing for animals, especially misunderstood or left behind/forgotten ones. When I was maybe 10, I started walking my neighbour’s dogs and always let them off leash, even though I wasn’t supposed to. I noticed they were so much happier. Sometimes it can help with behavioral issues by simply letting them run for a bit. Read more>>
Karen Kennedy
I think my business story, in a nutshell, is that after taking 10+ years off work to homeschool my kids, I wasn’t able to get an interview for any of the part-time jobs I applied to. So I said, “Fuck it, I’m starting my business back up.” I had a few interesting careers in my life. Read more>>
Tamela Cantor
Animals have been my entire world since I was 13. That’s when I started pet-sitting after an HOA newsletter made me the neighborhood’s go-to person for anything with fur (feathers or scales). By high school, I had a full-fledged pet-care company and was leaving school at noon once I got my license so that I could run it. Read more>>
Elayah Artis
=- I have loved, and been interested in the beauty industry for as long as I can remember. It began with me loving the art of doing nails from going to the nail salon with my mom as a little girl, and me always braiding, straightening, and curling the hair on my Barbie dolls. Read more>>
Bonnie Paisley
I grew up identifying as an artist, supported in that identity by my family, friends, and teachers. I went to school to study art and discovered I also loved teaching—first working with kids in Portland, then hosting small group classes in my studio. Having a dedicated studio, a place to work free from distractions, was always important to me. Read more>>
Kaylee Prebeck
As a little girl, I remember sitting with a piece of paper, drawing red circles over and over again and thinking, “I want to be an artist.” Looking back now, those circles remind me of the Flower of Life. I had no idea then how much art, healing, spirituality, and creativity would eventually weave together throughout my life. Read more>>
Colene Milligan
Artist Story I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember, but the moment I realized I could build a life around art came when I was 18, when my work was selected for the Salvador Dalí Museum’s annual Student Surrealist Art Exhibition in St. Petersburg, Florida. Read more>>
Dana Highfill
My story begins with burnout. After working in industrial design and experiencing a deep level of burnout and depression, I realized I needed to step back and re-evaluate my life, my choices, and what I wanted my purpose in the world to be. In 2008, I went back to school to study massage therapy. Read more>>
Elisabeth Adams
Becoming a licensed massage therapist is a second career for me. After high school I looked into attending a trade school to learn massage therapy. I didn’t take the path at that time and instead worked in other parts of the healthcare system. Over the years I found myself wishing I had followed the massage therapist path. Read more>>
Emily Bertman
I first moved to Grants Pass in 2012 and spent two years here. That’s when the idea for SOL Revolution was actually born. Life took me elsewhere for a while, and it took twelve years and four cross-country drives before I finally made it back to plant roots for real. Read more>>
Rose Archer
Hello! Im Rose Archer, and I am the chef and founder of Luscious Supper Club. I worked under 3 Michelin-starred chefs in my 20s and then left cooking to lead a more balanced life, become a mom, and earn more money. Read more>>
Brooks Jarrett
Art has always been at the forefront of my life. I remember doodling in the margins of schoolwork as early as the 1st grade, often to the dismay of my teachers. My interest in drawing only got stronger as I got older, and schoolwork doodles turned into full-fledged comic book stories on the back of syllabuses and reading assignments. Read more>>
Sarabeth Kett
I’ve always been an artist, from drawing rudimentary mermaid scenes as a child to having paintings in Los Angeles galleries, and along the way I fell into graphic design. I was designing show posters for my local community theatre back in Florida, which led me to an internship in NYC which led me to working as a Publication Designer for DC Comics Collected Editions. Read more>>
Mia Powers
I really started Core Collective by combining all the things I love! I grew up playing soccer and went on to play in college, so movement and being active have always been a huge part of my life. I also love design, hospitality, and bringing people together in fun and unexpected ways. Read more>>
Keisha Harrison
Beauty has always been my passion. I began my professional makeup career at 18 years old and quickly realized that helping people feel confident and beautiful was exactly what I was meant to do. My journey started in the cosmetics industry, where I worked for several well-known beauty brands, including Estée Lauder and Shiseido. Read more>>
Katie Hernandez
I started doing photography back in 2017. I have always been artistic my whole life, so my journey with art started when I was really young. My grandparents always fostered and encouraged my love and pursuit of art. I did painting classes in elementary school and entered art into the fair, and then did art classes in middle school as well. Read more>>
Debra Allen
It all started back in 1976. I was working at UC Davis in the operating room as RN when a friend of mine told me he was starting a plastic surgery residency at UC San Francisco. He said I think you would like plastic surgery and I thought maybe so. Read more>>
Krystal Stelle
The path to esthetics and starting my own business was a windy one, but every step brought me right to where I am meant to be today. Figuring it out along the way had been both exciting and nerve-wracking! I moved to Oahu at the age of 21 to study nutrition. Read more>>
Tess Gunderson
I stumbled into partner dancing when I was around 13 or 14 years old at Glen Echo Park in Maryland. At the time, I was very interested in traditional Celtic music and dance and had been performing at the Glen Echo Park Folk Festival. Read more>>
LoAn Pham
My story began when I was just 10 years old. My family was very poor, and my mother was a single mother raising four young children. She worked hard to support us, which meant she often wasn’t home. In the midst of that experience, I found God. I remember asking, *“Why do I exist in this world? Read more>>
Tanner Brown
I have been an active person my whole life, growing up playing sports and always moving with friends. As I entered college, I realized I wanted to keep moving but wasn’t sure exactly how I could make that into a profession. Read more>>
Jennifer Biglan
I’ve known what I wanted to do since the first time I walked into an animal shelter. In 2000, right after I graduated from the University of Oregon, I moved to California and started volunteering at a local shelter — and that’s where I found my purpose. Read more>>
tara seymour
I started doing yoga in my early 20’s. I instantly, knew that there was something different about Yoga. I began to learn all kinds of new things. Over years of hard practice, I became in tune with my body. I leaned how to breathe. I learned how to feel. Read more>>
Corinne Hendricks
My journey into healing and wellness really grew out of my own need for healing. Growing up, I struggled a lot with bullying, feeling like an outsider, and not having a strong sense of self-worth or confidence. As I got older, some of those unresolved experiences followed me into adulthood. Read more>>
Jacob Williams
My name is Jacob Williams. I was born and raised in Springfield, OR. When I was old enough to really start considering what I wanted to be when I grew up, I knew I wanted to be an artist. Read more>>
Kaylee Graham
I am a born-and-raised Oregonian who grew up in Florence on the Central Oregon coast. I was raised in a civic-minded family and taught the importance of giving from a young age. My parents, who were both teachers, always encouraged me to give what I could, when I could. Read more>>
DEF davyne & King Delane
King Delane: I’ve been making music my entire life. I’ve been through a lot in life and started using it as an outlet before I started pursuing it as a career. My journey has been a long road and I’ve been a survivor through it all. Coming from nothing will either make you or break you. Read more>>
Chase Swearingen
I was born and raised on a wildlife refuge in the tiny community of Jewell, Oregon, a town nestled within the Coast Range of the Pacific Northwest. At least 45 minutes from anywhere, my closest neighbors were approximately 200 Roosevelt Elk. Read more>>
Jeremy Brady
I grew up in southern Oregon, but my path to PT wasn’t direct. I graduated with dual B.S. degrees in Computer Science and Geoscience from Trinity University in San Antonio, then spent about ten years in educational publishing. Along the way I was also busy (unintentionally) injuring myself: in the mountains, on the soccer pitch, pole vaulting, dancing, and racing long-distance triathlons. Read more>>
Rebecca Zook
I didn’t grow up in a world that taught women to choose themselves. I was raised within a culture shaped by religious patriarchy-where women were positioned as supportive, accommodating, and second. There was an unspoken expectation to serve, to be agreeable, to prioritize others over self. Read more>>
Eric Pottenger
The Tin Shed Garden Cafe opened its doors in February of 2002. The cafe restaurant is the brainchild of Janette Kaden and Christie Griffin, the founding owner-operators. Read more>>
Andrea Shonnard
We are a second generation brother and sister team. Our mom and dad established the business in 1984. Joel and I both grew up in the business being only 2 and 3 when we moved from Bend to Corvallis. We both worked throughout the business from a very young age. Read more>>
Judith Cunningham
My journey to where I am today began with a moment that changed my life by 200 percent. I was suddenly forced to be with myself in ways I had never imagined or understood. Everything I thought I knew about myself, my life, and the world around me began to shift. At first, I didn’t understand what was happening. Read more>>
Kassaundra Lynn
The summer of 2020, I attended quite a few of the marches happening around Portland, OR, and wanted to be more of an active participant. So, I made herbal first aid kits and donated them. I had taken a couple years away from making herbal extracts, and this sparked my inspiration to dive into herbalism again. Read more>>
Bekah Beatty
I was born and raised in Oregon, and growing up, my family moved around quite a bit. I spent the majority of my childhood in Coos Bay and the surrounding areas. My love for art started before I can even remember. I was always drawing on the backs of school assignments and finding any opportunity to create. Read more>>
Brett Meyer
We used to say that opening a restaurant was our retirement plan, generally as a joke after a dinner party when someone asked why we didn’t have one already. As our careers in tech became more impersonal — all Zoom meetings and AI — we decided that moving into a field that required human connection would be more rewarding. Read more>>
Dayna Pinkham
I’ve had alopecia my whole life, but at 24, during my third year of premed at the University of Washington, the stress of the program combined with a breakup triggered it to spread from patches to losing everything- eyebrows and eyelashes included- in just eight days. I dropped out of school. It was a really crazy period of time for me. Read more>>
Shelah Wind-Smith
My story has never followed a particularly straight line. I was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness in a world where there were very strict rules around what you were supposed to believe and who you were supposed to be. When I was fourteen, I left the religion and much of the community I had grown up with disappeared almost overnight. Read more>>
Janel Lajoie
I was married for nearly 20 years, and for 16 of those years I ran an independent auto parts store. We had four boys, whom I homeschooled, and at one point they were all under the age of ten. It was a busy, noisy, fun life—until the 2008 housing crisis changed everything. My marriage ended—not because of the housing crisis—and we nearly lost our house. Read more>>
Geoff Metts
Music has been the through line for most of my life. I’m a guitarist, bass player, singer and songwriter, and long before I thought of myself as a business owner, I thought of myself as a musician. But business was always there too, and looking back, the intersection of those two worlds has really defined my career. Read more>>
Ålexander Cai Zettas
Within The Sound Studios is driven by musician and entrepreneur Ålexander Cai Zettas. Professional drummer, Educator, Music photo-journalist, and Independent Instrument Sales Rep based in Eugene, OR. He discovered his passion for music at a young age and was supported to start drum lessons when he was at the age of 7. Read more>>
Corrie Mahr
I think I accidentally became a wedding photographer. I grew up overseas, from the time I was six months old until I was eighteen, and I’ve been drawn to stories for as long as I can remember. Writing, movies, photographs, magazines, anything that could transport me into someone else’s world. Read more>>
Callan Eggen
My story really starts at 19, when I was 240 pounds with barely any muscle and feeling awful almost every day. I had constant gut problems, low energy, brain fog, and my mood was all over the place. I didn’t have anyone guiding me or giving me real answers, so I decided to figure it out myself. Read more>>
Jessica Ratterree
My story with photography started about 15 years ago, and honestly, I never could have imagined where it would take me. I’ve always been a creative and deeply sentimental person. I’m the person who holds onto photographs, little keepsakes, and things that remind me of people and moments in my life. Read more>>
Brannon Winningham
I filmed a wedding for a friend. Their videographer cancelled the day before and I said I would give it a try with zero experience. I did an okay job, but I captured some footage of a person talking to the bride and groom. A few weeks later that person passed away. Read more>>
Joel Stocks
I grew up in Portland Oregon and started cooking in a restaurant when I was 15. From an early age I had a pretty one track mind on what I wanted to do and immediately enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America in New York. Read more>>
Russ Harshberger
I learned some of my most enduring lessons about leadership far from a business-school classroom. While attending the University of Montana School of Business, I found a summer job with the U.S. Forest Service on a Type 2 wildland fire crew. Read more>>
Nathan Trivers
I’ve been in the food and beverage industry since around 1990 or 1991, and owning a restaurant was always the dream. It took a lot of years, hard work, and patience before that opportunity finally came along. Read more>>
Melissa Snyder
That Board Mom really started as a little side project that grew into something much bigger than I ever expected. After spending nearly two decades working in advertising and marketing, I found myself at a point where I was ready for something different. I had always loved entertaining, bringing people together, and—let’s be honest—putting together a really good cheese board. Read more>>
Selina Viscetto and Korynn West N/A
At Juniper Tattoo Co., our artists all have a shared passion for the arts as well as self-expression. We have always taken interest in many forms of body modification, from tattooing, to aesthetics, piercings, and more. We have different stories but share a love for enhancing one’s looks. Read more>>
Ursula St.Clair
I have been interested in skin care, makeup and beauty my entire life, I was fascinated with my grandmother’s tubes of lipstick, my mother’s eyeshadows and the tube of concealer that my aunt would apply under her eyes telling me that it was meant for the, “dark circles,” . Read more>>
Jennifer Michaelis
I’ve been training dogs professionally for more than 25 years, although I definitely didn’t start out with a master plan to own a dog training business in Oregon. I started working with dogs while I was in college in Missoula, Montana, and eventually spent more than a decade with PetSmart, where I was introduced to clicker training and positive reinforcement from the very beginning. Read more>>
Jennifer Van Domelen
I spent a long time in retail, and I knew it was time for a change—I just had no clue what that change would be. In the fall of 2015, we made the brilliant pre-holiday-season decision to get a puppy. Read more>>
Todd Crosby
I started Cravedog Records in 1993 as an independent record label. Before that, I had some experience in sales, selling advertising for the Willamette Week and newspaper subscriptions for The Oregonian. Around the same time, some of my friends were in bands and needed managers, so I started managing bands a year or two before launching the label. Read more>>
Chris Johnson
I was born and raised on the Yakama reservation by two amazing entrepreneurs. My dad ran a very successful logging company within the area and my mom a country western bar. Growing up meant being in the woods, eating bar food, and seeing my parents drive and ambition to build something for themselves and our fellow native community. Read more>>
Christina Cappy
My interest in language teaching and learning grew out of my international upbringing in Italy. I was born in Kentucky and moved to Florence at age 11, where I learned Italian by making friends, going to school, spending time downtown, and living in the countryside during the summers. Read more>>
Megan Arts
I was born and raised in Indiana and in August 2020 got hired by an dog training facility to work as a receptionist. I was hired because I already had a small base of dog training and handling knowledge from own life and personal interests, and I also had a lot of office experience. While I was there I learned any way I could. Read more>>
Gwyneth Manley
I am a Portland based artist working in a range of mediums including ceramics, metal and linoleum block printing. Some of my pieces feature more than one medium. For instance, I’ll make a chainmaille necklace with a ceramic pendant, or use my carved linoleum blocks to ‘print’ on my clay tiles. Read more>>
Sharon Vieregg
In all honesty, it started when I was twenty-one and went to Christmas dinner with a friend. His mother had created a beautiful environment with furnishings, lighting, and a beautifully set table with china, crystal, linens, and silver. Candlelight infused the experience. And I knew in my heart that someday this is what I wanted in my life. Read more>>
Robert Reilly
I am originally from Iowa where I grew up and went to college and got my first taste of media, advertising, and the thrill of developing brands, stories, and campaigns for clients. I worked at my student newspaper in college which allowed me to get real world hands on experience that I was able to carry on to my career start in Seattle, WA. Read more>>
Dawn Klinger
I started Tagliaferro Ceramics in 2016, but I have been working in clay for over 30 years. Working with and living in close communion with the earth has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. From the first time my hands touched dirt as a child, I knew where I would find my grounding. Read more>>
Mariah Ford
I have a story that usually makes people gasp and say, “WOW.” I lost my mom in a car accident when I was 16. I was raised by a single father with his own incredible-and sometimes rough- story. I learned pretty young that life doesn’t always go according to plan. Read more>>
Vladan Vlaski
My parents opened Two Brothers in the summer of 2006, but the story of our restaurant really began years before that. My parents came to Portland in 1998 as war refugees from former Yugoslavia. Like many immigrants starting over in a new country, they worked whatever jobs they could find to build a life for themselves. Read more>>
Hailey J.
I grew up in the Ventura County area of southern California, and I’ve also lived in San Francisco and New York City. I currently reside with my husband and son in the Pacific Northwest. As a kid, I took part in voice lessons, choir, and school plays, which later led to me studying classical singing at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Read more>>
Shana Levin
My path has been anything but traditional. Growing up, school was always a struggle. I was often put into the ‘slower’ classes, and was called “stupid” by classmates and even teachers. No one ever suggested there might be a reason. As it turns out, I have dyslexia and dyscalculia, but I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 35 and getting ready to go to grad school. Read more>>
Gayle Rich-Boxman
Born in a small town, outside of Buffalo, NY, during the baby boom era, offered great opportunities for becoming an intrinsic part of a tiny country community …as small towns do. It has served me well my entire life. With two incredibly diverse parents, I learned so much from them both and am well-rounded as a result! Read more>>
