My favorite thing is spending time with my husband John and our dog Ellie, or getting lost in Stephen King’s latest audiobook. (Apparently my idea of relaxing somehow involves being mildly scared). When I'm not doing that, I'm helping women take the reins back from breast cancer through access to expert care and evidence-informed tools. Let me explain how I got here.

Before my diagnosis, my life looked fine on paper. I had a successful career and a loving husband, but internally, I was struggling. I was relying on wine to unwind and food to escape, and was carrying around an extra 70 pounds as a result. I signed up for yoga hoping to lose a little weight, and while the weight eventually did come off, that became the least interesting part of the story. What really transformed was my mental health.

One year later, in 2024, I was diagnosed with stage II breast cancer and went through chemo, radiation, a mastectomy and reconstruction. But because I already had the mental tools in place, my cancer journey ended up being one of the richest and most meaningful times of my life. I know it would have been a completely different story if I hadn’t spent the year before learning how to work with my mind instead of against it.

Today, I'm continuing to deepen this passion by pursuing a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction facilitator credential through Brown University. This program is widely considered to be the gold standard, and focuses on evidence-based tools that support emotional regulation, resilience and stress reduction. 

Calm Through Cancer was born from this experience, and from the firm belief that even when we can't control what happens to us, we can choose how we respond to it. And that realization changes everything.