I excel at supporting women and people of color to play bigger in career and life. I’m a professionally trained coach in Energy Leadership Coaching. Besides running my own coaching business, I also contract with Torch as a Leadership Coach and teach professional design practice at California College of the Arts.
I’ve been actively mentoring women of color(WoC) in design since 2015. As one of the very few WoC design leads at Airbnb, I created a successful mentorship program to support the growth of emerging women design leaders, and later on, scaled the program to benefit 500+ design teammates. Besides Airbnb, I also mentored at ADPList.org, Twitter Design, Rethink, Hexagon, and Women in Innovation.
When I first started designing I went to many design events and networking opportunities in SF. Despite making some great connections, it was challenging for me to find seasoned design leaders who are women of color.
As a result, I had to learn things the hard way. I did not negotiate my salary early in my career. I did not persist or ask for things I wanted, whether it was a promotion, a green card sponsorship, or an intern. The feedback I received was I was doing good work but it was not visible enough, and that I needed to work on my confidence and communication. When I shared my career struggles, I found other women and people of color resonate with my experience. It ignited the fire within me to make a difference for the community that I care for.
Later on, I created a mentorship program for women designers at Airbnb. I felt empowered to ask difficult questions about diversity and inclusion and to hold our leaders accountable. I curated a design book collection to highlight diverse authors in design.
Most importantly, I discovered the purpose of my work: Unleash the creative and leadership potentials for women and people of color.
