I've spent over a decade teaching people how to move, and just as long teaching myself how to support the systems behind everyday life. This is where both live.
I started dancing before I could really walk, and studied classical ballet from the age of 2 through college. Words came next: I studied journalism at Emerson College, Binghamton University, and at the School for Journalism and Communications in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and was an editor at trade publications and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). That work pulled me toward computer science, a post-baccalaureate at NYU, and eventually Apple, where I spent six years coordinating cross-functional releases for Final Cut Studio.
I stepped away to raise a family and ended up building something of my own. A 2009 Zumba class turned into Just Move Fitness: three studios, more than 50 classes a week, and a business I ran for over 13 years.
When COVID hit, our business went all in on virtual and I found I liked being back working with technology. I also taught dance at BSD Dance Studio, taught wellness and physical education classes at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, and helped POMSQUAD rebuild their whole platform so they could launch their first on-demand training and an online studio. None of it was planned. I just kept acting on what people needed and how I could contribute value.
Eventually the technology pulled me back for good, this time with the credentials to prove it, plus membership in Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) and the Michigan Council of Women in Technology (MCWT).
Both halves are still here, and they keep showing up in the same place: a virtual studio built overnight during a pandemic, a secure platform that helped a fitness brand launch its first online studio, a sensor pipeline that turns raw data into something a person can read. Technology should disappear into the background so people can just use it, whether that's on a dance floor or in a support ticket.
My passion for helping people have fun with movement began when I became a Zumba instructor in 2009, and it just grew exponentially from there, leading to opening Just Move Fitness, where we had over 50+ classes a week and a community that supported discovering what moves you. I also taught dance to babies through adults at BSD Dance Studio for 10 years and wellness and physical education classes at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. I created fitness experiences to help the community, because movement that gives back is even better.
When COVID hit, I was co-running a fitness studio with my business partner. We had a very in-person model: more than 40 classes a week across three spaces plus a pool, and a real sense of community. So the challenge wasn't just how do we keep teaching classes. It was how do we keep people connected, supported, and getting value when the whole model got flipped overnight.
I naturally stepped into the systems side of that. I worked with instructors on recorded content, researched how to run better live Zoom classes, built out communication for both instructors and members, and helped us move to a platform that could actually support virtual memberships and secure class access. We were making decisions with incomplete information the whole time, but we kept moving and adjusting.
What I'm proud of is that we didn't just survive the pivot, we built something new. We created an on-demand library of over 250 videos, free and available at justmovefit.com today, added virtual and hybrid offerings, and landed a contract producing virtual fitness experiences for a national event firm. Cutting the overhead of a physical space actually made it one of the most profitable stretches in the business, and it kept our community going for five more years.
What started as teaching POMSQUAD dance fitness classes turned into something bigger. I helped the founders move their 400-video choreography library off a single shared login and onto a secure, searchable membership platform. That same system let us launch POMSQUAD's first on-demand training and build out an online studio.
Available for hire for community fitness experiences, fitness business consultation, and movement storytime training. Reach out to start the conversation!
After completing a post-baccalaureate in Computer Science at NYU, I spent six years at Apple coordinating cross-functional releases for Final Cut Studio and working on iTools infrastructure. When I stepped away to run my own business, I ended up being my own IT department for 13 years without ever calling it that. Now I'm back in tech formally, with an ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity credential, CompTIA A+, hands-on IT support training through Per Scholas, a Graduate Certificate in Applied Generative AI from Johns Hopkins, and a Certified Scrum Master credential. Same instinct as always: figure out what's actually broken, then fix it in a way that leaves people feeling more comfortable with technology, not more confused by it.
During an IoT externship, I helped build a water monitoring pipeline over MQTT, taking a stream of raw sensor data and turning it into something people could actually check without needing to understand the protocol behind it. That's the same instinct behind everything else on this page: the fewer things a person has to think about to get their answer, the better the technology is doing its job.
Open to IT Support and Cybersecurity roles in the Kalamazoo area. I'm also available to consult with entrepreneurs and small businesses on website security and practical AI workflow improvements, and to help small businesses sort out everyday tech issues. Reach out to start a conversation!