“What the world most needs from you is not your trappings but your longings made manifest.” 

During a life spent learning to empower myself, I found my mission: to create space and experiences for people to answer profound questions that lead to gentle self-awareness, radical self-acceptance, and a deep sense of well-being so they can connect with their talents and passions to authentically and intentionally live their purpose and help heal the world. 

My guiding belief is that we are each here on purpose to be one part of the solution this world needs (that purpose can be ever evolving but there is never a minute where we don’t matter), but, if we do not treat ourselves well, then we cannot show up fully. My passion is making sure that doesn’t happen. I want you to be accepting of yourself, lit from within, and well-resourced and nourished because this world needs you. And I want our culture to be better at understanding that we have a responsibility to resource and collectively care for one another so that we can all be well.  

I live my purpose primarily through writing and facilitating transformative workshops and keynotes on personal and professional development topics. I am the author of Beautiful You: A Daily Guide to Radical Self-Acceptance and Hijas Americanas: Beauty, Body Image, and Growing Up Latina. I speak on self-acceptance, self-awareness, growth, resilience, well-being, self-care, and burnout prevention. 

I began painting during the pandemic as a way to process anxiety and grief. Painting provided a different vocabulary for me than language and, in art, I found a powerful tool for restoration and hope. In my artwork, I use color, texture, and movement to imagine and reimagine spaces and experiences in a way that guides my feelings of fragmentation towards a sense of wholeness. 

I am a former high school teacher and care deeply about the empowerment of young people. I founded Circle de Luz, a non-profit that profoundly empowers and advocates for young Latinas through extensive mentoring, comprehensive programming, integrated services, and scholarship funds for further education, and continue to serve on the Board of Directors.  

I spend the fall and winter obsessing over soup, puzzles, and candles and the spring and summer obsessing over wild life, baseball and being near the water. I am an early morning walker (unless it’s cold and then I am scouring the weather report for which hour will be warm enough but not too hot. I am practically Goldilocks when it comes to temperature frustration, but Goldilocks was probably not peri-menopausal), a non-stop audiobook listener, a true crime aficionado, a messy painter, and I am happiest when gliding on water (preferably by kayak). 

I am equal parts reverent and irreverent. I paint and write for pleasure and purpose, teach to learn what I most need to know, and care give with equal parts joy and panic. My favorite thing is figuring out on the daily how to get a little closer to my truth so I can better engage in my world while trying to have a sense of wonder and humor about how it all goes down (or doesn’t). These days, I am trying my hardest to express my needs to others and myself before I get growly about them. It’s amazing how much better that works.