I majored in Urban Studies and Planning with a minor in Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego. I spent a year away studying abroad at the University of Manchester in Manchester, England. As a student, I held down my first retail jobs- as an inventory associate at J. Crew, then as a Sales Associate at the Selfridges department store in Manchester. My first stint in the work force after school was holding down two full-time positions- working at night for Electronic Arts' Mobile Division overseeing quality assurance for games ported to the mobile platform and interning during the day at the city of Whittier's Planning Department as a City Planner.
I went on to a career in City Planning and Land Use Consulting at Hogle-Ireland, inc. (now MIG) where I worked for nearly three years in various positions- Contractor Planner for local governments (Cities of Adelanto and Sierra Madre), policy planning (City of Duarte's Municipal Code; City of Redwood City General Plan), and project management for various land use developments in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Everything went swimmingly until 2007-2008 when the Great Recession burst the housing bubble and decimated city budgets and halted land development in all sectors. Faced with having to reinvent myself- I left sunny Southern California for the Bay Area and pursued a few positions that explored other passions of mine.
I had the opportunity and pleasure to learn the ins and outs of small business and eCommerce managing website UX, analyzing website data, and providing customer service for a start up (Meech) that focused on importing Japanese fashion trends to the United States. I also had the chance to work in a non-profit which provided needed health care to thousands of people in the Bay Area, primarily helping with applying and managing grants from private and government entities.
I balanced my day job at the non-profit with creative personal pursuits- blogging about vintage clothing (using the skills I learned at Meech) and catering friends' and family parties with Mexican food dishes found in my native San Diego that I missed dearly. Eventually, the food I was making garnered attention from a growing contingent of SoCal transplants. I was persuaded by those transplants to partner in a side business as a channel to sell my food, so I decided to start doing pop-up food events around San Francisco and eventually start a food stall at a local Farmers Market on the weekends.
What started as a fun pursuit became a thriving business with event catering, food truck, and full-time bar kitchen that required all my energy. Today, I've been able to let staff manage the day to day operations and focus on bigger picture growth and strategy. With more time on my hands, I'm free to pursue other projects and opportunities that capture my passion.