My Experience

I am a proud graduate of the University of Florida (Go Gators!) where I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications in 1986. This degree gave me the opportunity to enter the corporate world in the communications and marketing department of a large retail chain in South Florida. There I developed videos, marketing and training materials, and honed my skills in communications, writing, public relations, and marketing.

My background as a senior level marketing and communications professional has allowed me to become involved in a wide variety of industries. In the communications role, I have to become a quick subject matter expert to communicate the companies’ messages and help them launch, expand, or maintain their business. This is where I learned the art of:  Listen.  Learn.  Act. In order to find the right solution to any issue, you must listen to the stakeholders, learn all you can about the situation, and then be ready to implement a plan of action. This experience taught me invaluable negotiating, communication, organizational, and time management skills that I will put to use in Congress.

My diverse professional experience includes senior-level roles working with large master-planned developers and homebuilders, where I learned firsthand about stakeholder engagement, government regulations, permitting processes, and how large master-planned communities get built. This experience taught me invaluable negotiating, communication, organizational and time management skills that will be put to use in Congress.  For four years I navigated the world of health insurance, working with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland. There, I learned the inside world of how our health insurance coverage is rated and priced, how it’s regulated by the state, how Medicare and Medicaid works, and why our healthcare system is fundamentally broken and corrupt.

For the last 14 years I have been working in the clean energy industry, where I’ve worked with California IOUs and other utilities across the country, the State of California, energy consultants, and other large companies who are focused on ensuring that California and the nation has a sustainable environment for many years to come. As the senior level manager of Energy Upgrade California, I oversaw a $56 million budget, 23 professional agencies, and coordinated with over 50 stakeholders.

I’ve been a small business owner at different times in my career and I decided to pursue that once again in 2018. I am the owner of Engage Marketing & Consulting and work with a diverse group of consultants on a variety of interesting projects focused on social marketing, clean energy, sustainability, assisted living, and behavior change campaigns. Small businesses are the heart of the US economy. I understand the challenges of running a small business and will work to ensure that small businesses are able to benefit from tax cuts, grants, and subsidies so they can continue to create jobs. Small business is the backbone of the US economy. Small businesses and entrepreneurs are the reason our country has been successful.