About Me
I grew up in Nebraska just outside Lincoln, surrounded by a lake and cornfields—with horses across the road and wide open skies. My grandparents were farmers and railroad workers, my parents an attorney and a nurse. This is where my sisters and I learned our foundational midwest values of hard work, honesty, integrity, and kindness.
I came to Boston for college and felt a kind of culture shock, coming as I did from an endless horizon and quiet rural space to the dense, urban intensity of Cambridge. That contrast helped me realize how much I value access to nature, a sense of space, and the quieter rhythms of small-town life—one of the many reasons Carlisle felt like home when I first got to know it.
I’ve spent almost 30 years helping corporations, international organizations, non-profits, and governments navigate complex decisions and difficult conversations.
I studied architecture and urban planning at MIT, but a class on negotiation in my final semester changed everything. I hadn’t realized negotiation was a skill you could learn—and one that could build trust, improve outcomes, and strengthen communities.
I spent two years as a city planner on a major public project in my hometown, where I led community meetings and helped build consensus across diverse stakeholders. That work inspired me to deepen my expertise with a master’s from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, focusing on international negotiation and conflict resolution.
Since then, I’ve spent almost 30 years helping corporations, international organizations, non-profits, and governments navigate difficult conversations and complex decisions. And for the past 14 years, I’ve taught negotiation and leadership at Tufts University’s School of Engineering.
I first got to know Carlisle in 2004 when my sister moved here. I visited often—to babysit, to hike, to just enjoy time with family—and quickly fell in love with the town. When Dan and I got married in 2010, we chose to get our marriage license here, even though we didn’t yet live in Carlisle. Our wedding reception was here too. That says a lot about how connected we felt to the town long before we lived here.
In 2016, we finally made it happen. Our first home was a modest 1500-square-foot Cape — the only thing we could afford in Carlisle. When we eventually outgrew the house, we couldn’t imagine leaving our wonderful Stearns Street neighborhood—so we found a place with a bit more space just up the road.
Our kids, Gus and Aoife, began at Carlisle Kids House and are now thriving at CPS in fourth and seventh grade. We’ve built our family life here—participating in Scouts Pack 135 and youth soccer, joining the FRS community, making regular visits to Kimball’s, even boarding a horse at Little Brook Farm for a time.
Carlisle has given us so much, and that’s why I care about helping shape a future that keeps it vibrant—not just preserved, but truly thriving—as a small New England town.