It was a Philadelphia airport tarmac where, during graduate school, I volunteered to hold a rope-line for then-Governor Bill Clinton and realized my greatest thrill: bantering with the traveling press corps covering the 1992 Presidential election. At heart, journalists are storytellers – they weave facts into narratives that leave the reader to decide (they still do that!). Among them, it was Gwen Ifill who never left my mind. She was a woman of color covering the Presidential race for “The New York Times”  and to me, she represented so many things I knew were possible, but remained unrealized. Inspired, I accepted a Schedule C appointment in the Clinton Administration, which left me prepared for anything. I thought. Even working for Barry Diller? Kind of. I absorbed all I could from the masters of creativity, disruptive leadership and curiosity and that led to some other cool jobs along the way – CEO of DailyCandy, head of strategy at Nielsen Entertainment, and a corner office at CAA. It was  only when I started to create however, that things got interesting. Timed with the birth of my kids, I launched a few start-ups and finally, Glass Elevator Media, embracing my full circle desire to inspire participatory democracy through cultural conversation and storytelling. When GEM merged with Killer Films to become Killer Content, the foundation for Level Forward was born. ​

 

How I Level Forward: With so many things to complain about, I go out of my way to give compliments. Positive reinforcement works for everyone, especially people who don’t expect it, (on top of kids and dogs. The world needs more of that, and I think in some way, being more sensitive to good is a path to common ground.