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I am an emerging intercultural and organizational development practitioner with a non‑linear but deeply grounded path. I spent about 16 years living and working in Japan, teaching English to learners of all ages and designing and delivering culture‑focused courses at a two‑year college for students preparing for international careers. That long-term immersion, combined with travel across multiple European countries, gave me first‑hand experience of navigating language, culture, power, and identity in everyday life and in educational settings.
After returning to the United States, I completed an MA in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and have continued to deepen my practice through structured learning and professional involvement. I am currently in my second round of Christa Uehlinger’s LinkingPeople Mastery program, a paid, practice-oriented course led by a highly respected intercultural communication professional in Switzerland, and I previously completed the VA’s Virtual Aspiring Supervisors Program as a way to refresh and apply my I/O knowledge in a leadership context. In my current role as a Lead Medical Support Assistant at a VA medical center, I work inside a complex healthcare system where I observe organizational culture, communication patterns, and interpersonal dynamics daily, and I look for ways to apply I/O and intercultural lenses in how I support staff and patients.
Across these experiences, the throughline is my interest in how people from different backgrounds work together, how organizations shape (and sometimes constrain) that collaboration, and how thoughtful training and culture work can improve both well-being and performance. I am now looking to translate this combination of lived intercultural experience, formal I/O training, and ongoing professional development into concrete, visible projects in the intercultural and organizational development space.
I learn best by doing. I am at my strongest when I can observe how intercultural work is actually carried out—whether that is facilitating an established training program, applying a specific model or framework, or working with leaders around culture and inclusion—and then practice those skills myself with feedback and reflection. My goal in this mentoring program is to move from “highly informed and motivated” to “actively practicing,” by working alongside an experienced professional on real intercultural or CQ-related projects, including training delivery, program or curriculum design, and advisory or strategy-focused work.
As a person, I am reflective, thoughtful, and curious. I bring deep lived experience abroad, a strong theoretical foundation in I/O psychology and intercultural communication, and a genuine desire to help people experience work and cross-cultural interactions as more humane, equitable, and engaging. I am also candid about the fact that my current job titles do not yet reflect the level of learning and commitment I have invested, and that I sometimes wrestle with self-doubt as I navigate that gap. I value mentors who are authentic and down-to-earth, who can offer clear and constructive feedback, and who are open to a relationship that looks a bit like a master/apprentice model—shadowing, co‑facilitation or co‑design, and gradual ownership of pieces of work as my confidence and experience grow.
I am committed to the long term to working in the intercultural/IC/CQ space in ways that go beyond one‑off workshops, including contributing to how intercultural concepts are taught, embedded, and evolved in organizations. I have time and energy I’m willing to invest, including unpaid or low‑paid opportunities where feasible, if it means gaining authentic experience, building a portfolio of work, and learning how to communicate the value of intercultural work to organizational leaders.
I hold an MA in Industrial/Organizational Psychology (completed in 2023), which I pursued in order to help people at the systems and workplace level—through better leadership, healthier teams, and more intentional organizational cultures. My studies included organizational behavior, work‑team dynamics, leadership theory, motivation, and related topics that connect directly to how culture and structure shape people’s experience at work.
Earlier, I briefly began a graduate path in clinical counseling, completing foundational work in areas such as lifespan development, APA ethics, and introductory counseling concepts before deciding that I was more drawn to organizational and systemic impact than to clinical practice. I do not present myself as a clinician, but that exposure informs my sensitivity to wellbeing, boundaries, and ethical practice in organizational contexts. My undergraduate degree is in Philosophy, with a focus on philosophy of mind and philosophy of science, which trained me to think critically about assumptions, paradigms, and evidence and continues to shape how I approach questions of culture, identity, and organizational change.
Over the past several years, I have complemented this formal education with ongoing learning in intercultural communication and CQ, including multiple rounds of Christa Uehlinger’s LinkingPeople Mastery program and active involvement with SIETAR. At this stage, my priority is to apply this educational foundation in real-world intercultural and organizational contexts by learning from experienced practitioners how established intercultural models and trainings are delivered and adapted in practice.
