Where I Started Is Why I Build for People
I was born and raised in Cypress, Texas, a small town on the northwest edge of Houston that most people outside the area have never heard of. My parents came to this country as refugees from Vietnam with nothing. They didn't speak the language, didn't know the systems, and had no manual for how to build a life here. They built a life anyway, so my two sisters and I could have one too. (I'm the middle kiddo.) Growing up, I watched what it actually takes to build something you love from scratch: humility, resourcefulness, and resilience. I grew up in a place where there were few people in the room who looked like me, which taught me early what it feels like to not quite belong, and how much it matters when someone makes space for you anyway.
Through that upbringing, I've spent my career obsessed with people and the systems that are supposed to serve them. As a first generation college student, becoming a CPA felt like the responsible, good girl choice, built on stability and security rather than what I actually wanted. A few years in, I realized I'd made that decision for everyone else's approval, not my own, which kicked off a lot of different versions of me. What I actually loved was people, and understanding why we do the things we do, particularly at work, so when a friend of a friend told me about organizational psychology, the science of people and work, I was hooked. (Adam Grant is basically my Beyoncé.) Over the past 16+ years, that curiosity turned into a career building human-first change through places like PwC and Coursera, reaching millions of people, and eventually co-founding two organizations of my own: a nonprofit called the Bay Area Organization Development Network that I helped launch during the pandemic, and later a company built to help young adults land their first job out of college. Every version of that work comes back to the same belief: people do better when they're seen, heard, supported, and given room to grow, because that's exactly what someone did for my family when we had nothing else to stand on.
These days, I'm a proud mom to my daughter, after a difficult 4-year fertility journey to have her. I'm also on a lifelong journey to become the best version of myself, personally and professionally, and right now, I'm in my My 6.0 era. If you're someone who has ever felt like the outsider trying to build something from scratch, in a career, a family, or a new chapter you didn't fully expect, I'd love to connect. If you're a leader trying to bring more human-first thinking into your own organization, this is the work humanity needs now more than ever. That's human-first: people showing up for people.
