I entered college as a biomedical engineering student on the path to medical school. I had worked at a neuroscience and vision lab at Boston University, where I developed an experiment to identify correlations between visual cues and the areas they activate in the brain. This got me working with MATLAB and MRI machines and I realized I was more passionate about technology than the clinical aspects of my work. I switched to mechanical engineering and started serving the oil & gas upstream industry at Schlumberger after my master’s degree.
For about four-and-a-half years, I was primarily engaged in engineering design, manufacturing, testing and maintenance of subsea safety equipment for offshore drilling and production. During that time, I realized that at the core of my passion for technology was a desire for entrepreneurship and large-scale implementation, which led me to McKinsey.
I joined McKinsey’s Operations practice and have served clients across industries, including ground service equipment, building solutions, retail banking, and oil and gas, and have felt privileged to make a difference by supporting clients through implementation.
Morning person or night owl:
Night owl
One of your favorite hobbies/pastimes:
Mentoring children and young adults through my network of family, friends and local church and helping them discover their passions. I set up 30-60 minute calls with students who are seeking advice on topics such as academic interests like what does it take to be an engineer or what opportunities are out there if I love programming, prepping for college admissions, post-graduate opportunities, or building a specific skill like public speaking. I also love trying out new things like ziplining with my husband.
One of your favorite traditions:
For every birthday, my family celebrates with cake. During lockdown, we have been improvising. Everyone in the family bakes their own cake and shares in the celebrations over Zoom.
What fad/trend from when you were growing up makes you laugh the most:
Dancing to “Everybody” by the Backstreet Boys. It was a huge thing at my high school, and everyone had mastered it for all the parties.
What has been your biggest take-away from McKinsey:
McKinsey offers opportunities to use my skills and passion to drive change that matters across multiple industries and sometimes in surprising ways. For example, given that I am a mechanical engineer, I never thought I would play a pivotal role in leading the implementation of a new collections model during a transformation at a retail bank.
I am also humbled to work alongside the brightest people. I’m constantly impressed by how we all work hard and play hard. Specifically, one of my teams worked tirelessly to run a Kaizen event - a continuous improvement concept that is used in any business environment to improve efficiency - for our clients, then enjoyed the best team dinner with Hogwarts butter beer at Universal Studios Orlando.