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Part deep thinker,
part playful guide.
About Me
People are sometimes surprised by the combination. The deep thinking part they expect—more than twenty years in higher education, the graduate degrees, the original frameworks. The playful part catches them off guard. But both are real, and both show up in every room I enter. I'm an introvert who genuinely loves people. I'm as comfortable on a wilderness trail as I am in a boardroom. I hike with a zirconium hip, and while that sets some limits for me, I go anyway because limits and longing are not opposites. And I believe that the work of finding your way through this life is serious enough to deserve both rigor and laughter.
Why Wild Wayfinding
Two quotes have haunted me, in the best possible way, for longer than I can remember.
The first is Mary Oliver's poetic question: "What do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" The second is Frederick Buechner's description of vocation: "The place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."
I have never been able to put either of them down.
For the past few years I had been doing two things that felt like they belonged together but kept getting separated in the telling. I had been coaching people—sitting with them in the hard interior work of figuring out what mattered and what to do next. And I had been walking, by myself and with others, in the mountains and along the coast of Southern California and through neighborhoods at dusk. I found things on foot that I couldn't find at a desk. Two tracks. Two explanations. And the harder I tried to keep them apart, the more insistently they pulled toward each other.
Then I wrote Walking & Wayfinding. Putting the walking practice into words, into a framework others could follow, made it impossible to keep treating the two tracks as separate things. Writing and walking are more similar than they might seem. Sometimes you walk your way into understanding something you couldn't have reached by thinking alone. Sometimes you write your way there, too. Once I had done both, I couldn't unknow what they were telling me.
What I believe
Courage is at the center for me. It's the value I return to no matter where I start. It's the one that won't let me organize my thinking, or my living, any other way.
There's a distinction worth naming: bravery is acting without fear. Courage is acting even with it, or in spite of it. That distinction shapes everything about how I work and why.
Without courage, authenticity stays private. Love stays feeling. Integrity stays intention. Just action Trust and belonging don't happen.
My core values are authenticity, courage, and integrity. The place where these three meet is where I try to live.
What shaped this work
More than twenty years in higher education gave me a formation I couldn't have planned and wouldn't trade in how people find their way toward each other across genuine difference, and what it actually takes to build something together in conditions that are rarely ideal.
Another education was always happening alongside it, more tangible, more solitary, learned through the hands and the body. I am a musician, a gardener, a photographer, and a walker. Each practice keeps teaching me something different, but underneath all of them is the same invitation: to stay curious, to wonder, to remain open.
The writers and thinkers who have shaped my thinking include Mary Oliver, Frederick Buechner, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Ross Gay, whose work on finding delight continues to inform how I understand joy as something we practice, not something we wait for.
Wild Wayfinding came after years of real coaching work with real people, a long season of deep reflection, and a growing conviction that what I was building needed to more fully express what I actually do.
The work in numbers
420+ clients. 1,700+ hours of individual coaching conversations. Contracts with BetterUp and Spring Health. Clients in 22 countries across six continents.
I am a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation and a National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC). I hold the Erickson Solution-Focused Coach Diploma. I am also an ICF-qualified mentor coach for ACC credential renewal. I hold a Master of Arts in Music from the University of California, Riverside, and a Master of Divinity from Pacific School of Religion.
I am the author of the Amazon #1 bestseller in Walking, Walking & Wayfinding: Create Your Own Mindful Practice, One Step at a Time, available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook. I am a contributing author to Confident You: The Raw Conversations: Real Stories of Courage, Healing, and Redefining Confidence, an Amazon International #1 Bestseller in Women Authors.
I work from original frameworks including the Taxonomy of Longing—a five-stage map of how longing moves from the first unnamed ache to the committed walk—and the six-stage Wayfinding Framework grounded in Appreciative Inquiry.
Early in my career I received the Quietly Making Noise Award, given in recognition of behind-the-scenes work that no one sees and everyone notices. It named something true about how I work that I've never wanted to lose.
Giving back
I believe coaching should be more financially accessible than it currently is. That conviction has taken many forms over the years, from sliding scale fees when needed to pro bono coaching for underserved populations, and from supporting communities in crisis in countries at war to wildfire survivors closer to home.
Currently I commit a portion of my work hours to pro bono coaching through Up with Women / Exponenti'elles, supporting recently homeless and at-risk women and gender-diverse individuals building a sustainable path out of poverty.
This work is not separate from Wild Wayfinding. It is what my values ask of me.
Hear from me
Chapter 1 of Walking & Wayfinding begins where most things worth doing begin—with a question about why. Why wayfinding? Where does the word come from, and what does it have to teach us about moving through uncertainty with intention? Press play for a brief excerpt, and a sense of what the practice sounds and feels like from the inside.
Scope of Work
Wild Wayfinding shows up in several distinct forms, and it's worth knowing the difference.
Individual coaching follows ICF and NBC-HWC professional standards and coaching competencies throughout. The focus is on you and what you're working toward. I hold the structure. You bring the content. And I ask the questions that help you voice what you already know.
Workshops, trainings, and speaking engagements are designed for organizations, teams, and communities navigating change. Each is built for the specific context. There is no off-the-shelf curriculum here. The approach draws from Appreciative Inquiry, emotional intelligence, and facilitation that creates real connection.
Wayfinding experiences such as labyrinth walks, Wayfinding Days, and guided retreats, are reflective practice not coaching or therapy. They're facilitated encounters with yourself through movement, attention, and conversation. Just space, structure, and a guide.
The Wild Wayfinding Journey cohort (coming soon) is something in between—a blend of experiential learning, coaching methodology, communal reflection, and time that is genuinely inspiring. It's not group coaching in the formal sense. It's a learning community, shaped by the Wayfinding framework and held together by the people in it.
In all contexts I follow ICF and NBC-HWC ethical standards.
FAQ
How do I start working with you?
Book a free Compass Call—a 30-minute conversation to find out whether Wild Wayfinding is the right fit for where you are right now. For coaching, you'll receive a digital coaching agreement and a link to schedule your sessions. Payment is due at the time of service. For consulting, I'll send a proposal within three business days of our initial conversation.
Do you offer reduced-fee pro bono services?
Yes. I recognize that coaching is often a financial privilege. I work with clients on income-based fees in some cases, and payment plans are available for larger packages. For consulting, I work with community-benefit organizations within their budget. I commit a portion of my professional hours to pro bono work. Please inquire directly about your situation.
Do you work with international clients?
Yes. I currently work with clients across 22 countries and have adjusted my availability to accommodate most time zones. If you don't see a time that works, let me know. Cultural agility is something I take seriously and am always working to deepen.