During the pandemic, I worked at a company that started an employee resource group (ERG) called Unity, a catch-all for every type of diversity in the workplace. When the call went out for lead, I put my name in the hat and was named chair. I absolutely loved that role. I was able to connect with people across the company and build real community with them. However, the Executive Leadership Team started asking me questions I didn’t have answers to. So I went looking for them. That search led me into a doctoral program in Organizational Diversity.

While I was in the doctoral program, I transitioned to a tech startup building and leveraging AI. With the industry demand to use AI, I got curious how other small companies were adopting AI, and whether they were centering humans in that work. That curiosity became the foundation of my dissertation research, where I studied how small and medium-sized businesses responded to the pressure to adopt AI and if it was done responsibly. The deeper I got into that research, the clearer it became that my real passion wasn’t just AI. It was the people.