For at least part of my childhood, I wanted to be a secret, dual-identity, undercover peace-making agent - probably partially based on some movie or tv show but without the violence.

I also wanted to be a biomedical engineer so that I could make myself a new pair of knees (I grew up with tremendous knee pain - fixed now, thankfully). Since I was good at math and science, the engineering career path won. But, I couldn’t bring myself to study animal testing, so I became a mechanical engineer. I graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. I joined HP which then spun off into Agilent Technologies. On my first day of work after graduating, I nicely told my manager that I was happy to be there but wished I was helping people more. He said, “How about the environment?”. I said ok and was given 10% of my time to help make our products more environmentally responsible. The rest of the time, I was an R&D engineer and then a safety and regulatory engineer. I worked in environmental sustainability for about 10 years.

Even though I had grown up in Michigan, USA and loved living in Colorado post-university, I felt like Israel was my true home. So, I listened to my heart and moved to Jerusalem at the age of 32. Within a week, I met a cute neighbor from upstairs. I thought he might also be a new immigrant because his Hebrew seemed only slightly better than mine. Turns out, he had been living here for over 10 years, but had been terribly injured in a terror attack. He had a brain injury, had to relearn absolutely everything (how to walk, talk, who his family was, etc) and was lucky to be alive. I was taken by his strength, eternal optimism, resilience, humor and so much more. We got married and now have 3 wonderful children.

After our third kid was born, I had the opportunity to be the Assistant Director of the Pardes Center for Judaism and Conflict Resolution. It rekindled my dreams of working in peace. So, I got my certificates in mediation and in conflict coaching and opened my own business. I help people with their interpersonal conflicts and help them prepare for difficult conversations. I love connecting with people, feel honored that people choose to share their relationship challenges with me, and am thankful that I can help them so much.