My Defiant Origin Story

Honored to share my #defiantoriginstory. Thank you to Ashleigh Koehler for nominating me and Bryan Pe?a, CCWP for the ideation behind this inspiring movement.

I have spent nearly my entire 29 year career in the Staffing/Contingent Workforce space.? For those that know me well, they know I rarely share much personal information about myself and my line between my professional life and personal life is very defined. ?With some admitted discomfort, here goes….

I grew up on a farm in a small town in rural, upstate New York.? Picture the type of town (population ~3,500 people, all of whom were white) where everyone knows everyone, and your teachers were once your parent’s teachers.? My father was a third-generation dairy farmer.? My saint of a mother was an executive at a utility company. Growing up in a small town had its advantages.? The sense of community and neighbor helping neighbor mentality was unwavering.? But growing up in a small town can also teach an impressionable 8-year-old girl what hate and racism looks like.

The summer I turned 8, a new family moved into the house closest to us.? The family was comprised of a white father, a black mother and a young, black, daughter my age named Angela.? Angela and I quickly became best friends.? We were inseparable from the minute she would knock on our front door at 7:00 am until we were both called home each day as the sun set.? That first summer of our friendship remains one of the most memorable times of my life.? I learned what it meant to have a best friend.? The kind of friend you could share secrets with.? Secrets like that my alcoholic father would routinely come home drunk and beat my mother.? I learned that to share secrets meant you also had to be a keeper of secrets, like that Angela had a brother who was incarcerated but their family didn’t want anyone to know. ?As summer days grew shorter, one day Angela and I found ourselves riding our bikes down a back country road.? As a pickup truck approached us, we carefully moved our bikes to the side of the road to wait for it to pass.? As the truck came to a stop alongside us, I recognized the driver and his occupant.? Through his open window, the driver said, “Oh look, there is the little n***** lover and her shadow” and then they laughed and drove away. ?I was 8 years old.? At 8 years old, I was a quiet, compliant child.? To this day I regret not giving those men a piece of my mind to defend my best friend.

Angela and I never talked about the encounter that day with the pickup truck.? But that night I went home and shared the experience with my mother who immediately began to cry.? She then walked out the door towards Angela’s house to ensure Angela was ok.? Two weeks later, without any type of notice or conversation, Angela and her family quietly moved out of our town, literally disappeared.? I never saw her again. I knew at that moment I hated the town I grew up in and vowed to get out as soon as I could.?

To get out, meant I needed to go to college.? I was adamant that I would become a news anchor and move to New York City.? While I didn’t become a news anchor, I went to college, met a boy and that boy got a job offer in Ohio.? One night he asked me, “Do you want to move to Columbus, OH”?? I think I answered yes before he completed his sentence.? I was getting out!

Upon arriving in Ohio, I started looking for my first real job.? My career started at ADP, selling payroll services.? While delivering a 401k report (yep a paper copy) to a client, their head of sales approached me and asked if I would be interested in learning about an open role on his team.? They were an IT Consulting/Staffing company.? 22-year-old me had no idea what they did, but I was willing to listen.? 3 weeks later, I was officially part of the Staffing industry.

Several years in staffing doing both sales and recruiting were followed by a 17-year career in the VMS/MSP space. In 2018, I joined MBO Partners and now lead our Professional Services vertical.

It’s been 43 years since that encounter with the pickup truck.? I can officially say I made it out.? That 8-year-old, quiet, compliant child became an empowered businesswoman who is known for her boldness, directness, and always speaking up for what is right and to defend those she cares about.? And I would love the opportunity to face the driver of that pickup truck today.

I nominate Dawnette Cooke and Jeff Castellanos to share their stories next week!