Fifteen Years of Becoming

Fifteen years ago, I made a decision that would change far more than my career.

At the time, I already had a career that I was proud of. I wasn't new to ambition, leadership, or hard work. But I was entering a very different season of life.

I was a mom to a six-year-old little boy, and I was deeply intentional about the life I was creating for him. I wanted to give him a childhood filled with opportunity, stability, love, and memories. And I wanted to keep growing myself.

At the same time, my husband and I had been trying for nearly five years to have a second child. There had been miscarriages, complications, disappointment, and hope. It was a lot ot carry.

So when the opportunity to join Blackbaud came along, I was thinking about much more than a job. I was thinking about the kind of mother I wanted to be, what kind of leader I wanted to become, and whether I could build a career without sacrificing the life I was trying so hard to create.

Working from home was still unusual 15 years ago. To me, it felt like possibility. Maybe I could be present for my son and establish myself as a leader.

Maybe I didn't have to choose.

A few months after joining Blackbaud, I discovered I was pregnant.

Sometimes I look back on that timing and wonder if, after years of carrying so much hope and disappoinment, stepping into a new chapter allowed me to finally release some of what I had been holding.

By my one-year work anniversary, I was heading out on maternity leave.

And that's when the real story of these 15 years began.

I became a mother of two while becoming a leader. I learned that motherhood didn't make me less ambitious, and ambition didn't make me less of a mother. I missed some moments because I was working. I made many others because I was home.

My career didn't happen instead of my life.

It happened alongside it.

Over the years, doors opened. Some I pursued. Others opened because someone believed in me before I was sure I was ready. I built teams, developed people, and created some amazing event experiences. I took on challenges I never imagined and found myself in rooms I couldn't have pictured when I logged in from home on that first day.

As my career and family continued to grow, so did the responsibilities and challenges outside of work. My children were growing up, my parents were aging, and I found myself needed in new ways. Then the pandemic hit and changed how all of us lived and worked, adding another layer of uncertainty to an already demanding season.

Through it all, I kept showing up.

And then came the hardest chapters of my life.

I had a heart attack.

I lost my mom.

My dad was stage four.

There were moments when I wasn't the leader with all the answers. I was simply a daughter, a mother, a wife, a woman trying to find her way through things I have never expected to face.

And this is one of the things I will always be grateful for about my 15 years at Blackbaud.

The company and its people didn't ask me to leave those parts of myself at the door.

They supported me.

They embraced me.

They gave me space to be vulnerable without making me feel vulnerable.

And some of the most meaningful moments came from sharing my story with other women leaders—being honest about what I had been through and realizing that vulnerability didn't diminish my leadership. In many ways, it deepened it.

That's something I couldn't have known 15 years ago.

When I look back, I don't see a straight career trajectory.

I see a life unfolding alongside a career.

I see a six-year-old boy becoming a young man. I see a family growing and changing. I see a leader becoming more confident, more compassionate and, i hope, more human.

And i see a company that grew and changed with me.

That's what this anniversary means to me.

Not simply that I've been at Blackbaud for 15 years.

That I've grown with Blackbaud for 15 years.

I've learned that thriving isn't about perfectly balancing every part of your life. It's about allowing all of the parts of you to matter—and continuing to grow through whatever season you're in.

Fifteen years later, I'm proud of the career I've built.

But I'm even more proud of the life I built alongside it.

The children I've raised.

The people I've led.

The relationships I've invested in.

The challenges I've weathered.

The people who showed up for me when I needed them.

The life I've lived and the woman I've became.

I'm grateful for the doors that opened, for the people who opened them, and for the people who walked through them with me.

I don't know exactly what the next chapter will hold.

But after 15 years, I know this:

I'll keep showing up.