Background & History
“With the intention of pursuing a journalism career, I earned my undergraduate degree at Wayne State College, where I majored in Communications. I then moved to Omaha and got a master’s in communications from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
After I finished all of this coursework, I began working for a local paper, writing full time for the Midlands Business Journal about the business community in Omaha. I got married and had my first child, Georgia, in 1994, and my second, Rain, in 1995.
Around this time, I felt like I was ready for a career change. I ended up joining Kirkpatrick Pettis, owned by Mutual of Omaha, as a Communications Specialist. Half of my responsibilities included internal communications and the other half was dedicated to documenting company policies and procedures. It was a great experience, as it gave me the opportunity to learn about the financial services/brokerage industry from the operations side.
I was eventually promoted to a managerial role, but in 2001, the company was sold, shortly after I had my son, Noah. My job was phased out seven months later. So, I went back to freelancing and picked up a copy editing job. Got laid off again, then got hired on with Securities America as copywriter, thanks to my knowledge of financial services. While there, I was promoted to team lead, then manager, then into a director level position. Yet even with these promotions, there were limitations to what I could do for my staff. That left me with such a helpless feeling, and resentment built up over time.”
