I was born and raised in Marion, Indiana, a small tightly-knit town an hour and a half north of Indianapolis. From the time I can remember, I have been drawing. By high school, I was extremely involved and completed every art and design class offered, winning many local competitions. I chose to pursue my passion in art and design at Ball State University, continuing my mother’s and grandmother’s tradition, where I majored in Landscape Architecture and minored in sculpture. As part of the design school, I had the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the modern sustainability movement with two year long research fellowships and the chance to study architecture around the world while traveling to thirty different countries. My internships, during two summers in school, landed me a full time position at LandDesign, a land planning and civil engineering firm, after graduation in Southern Pines, North Carolina. There, I designed large scale master planned communities, lifestyle centers, and high-end resorts while also becoming a Registered Landscape Architect and LEED GA certified.
As a Landscape Architect, I was able to utilize many of my design skills, but I realized that I was missing critical business skills to bring my abilities full-circle and take them to the next level. At Kenan-Flagler, I plan to leverage my creative passion and talent into the fields of design consulting or innovative marketing where I can apply both artistic and business practices. I also plan to continue incorporating sustainability into everyday life, both personally and professionally, and to pursue further opportunities to learn and travel globally, including STAR projects Global Emersion Electives.
Ideally, I would spend my free time sketching passing pedestrians in quaint European villages. More realistically, though, I love to create graphic design, photography, and sculpture. When I am not practicing art or design, I teach CrossFit, participate in multiple triathlons per year and enjoy cycling, swimming, and volleyball. Finally, to relax, I enjoying lounging on my back deck with my husband, Chris, and our two black Labradors, Cleopatra and Ramses.