This strategic planner uses her skills to forge a career and to feed the hungry

I’m a food lover living in a city with amazing dining, so I’m often asked for restaurant recommendations. Interestingly, there are many parallels between providing a well-received restaurant recommendation and career advice. The key is tailoring the recommendation to fit the person. With that in mind, I’m sharing what’s currently top-of-mind in my career journey, hoping you’ll find something relevant for yours.

Cultivate T-shaped Experience:

For eleven years, I worked in strategy and operations consulting, where career paths and expertise requirements are clear: build broad business acumen, add deep functional expertise, and then combine them to create informed strategies. Through consulting and life, I’ve gained diverse experiences, ranging from automotive engineering to fashion retail, forensic accounting to casino operations, and bussing tables to advising C-suite executives. At Circana, I’ve developed deep expertise in data analytics and insights for consumer product goods. Next on my horizon is combining my breadth and depth of capabilities to develop enterprise-level strategies.

Solve and Anticipate Problems:

COVID heavily impacted two of my beloved communities: healthcare workers and restaurants. While searching for N-95s for my brother’s emergency department, I learned about Frontline Foods (FLF), a grassroots organization bringing meals from restaurants to healthcare teams. I jumped in to help wherever I could and soon found myself building models to match meal requests with anticipated donations and available restaurants, as well as an operations playbook for fellow volunteers. Early on, I anticipated questions around where we were sourcing meals and which hospitals we were delivering to. Those questions came flooding in when George Floyd was killed, and I was able to immediately report that our Chicago chapter had consistently sourced from and delivered to communities across the full spectrum of Chicago residents, with volumes aligning with neighborhood case rates. In the end, FLF (now part of World Central Kitchen) delivered $10 million in meals nationwide and I had the honor of co-coordinating over 50,000 meals in Chicago.

Build Relationships Across Teams:

It’s easy to understand that learning how different parts of an organization work together helps people succeed. What’s often more challenging is making meaningful connections outside of one’s immediate team. At Circana, I’ve had the opportunity to be part of the strategy and leadership teams for our Diversity Advantage Program (DAP). DAP is an all-volunteer initiative where employees partner with women- and minority-owned businesses to share Circana’s data and analytics skills in an effort to build a more equitable consumer goods ecosystem. Through collaborating with fellow DAP volunteers, I’ve deepened my understanding of the enterprise and together we’ve assisted over 60 small businesses at 12 retailers and distributors.