What do you do at RESTORE-Skills and in what circumstances would I come to you for something?

• I'm thrilled to join RESTORE in the Senior Director of Clinical Success role and to help clinicians provide meaningful, patient-centered care! My favorite thing to do is to collaborate with dedicated healthcare providers to innovate and deliver healthcare in a way that has never been done before. I look forward to leveraging my experience to give thoughtful clinical suggestions and creative ideas to assist users as they navigate RESTORE. It's exciting to join this team and embrace the challenge to take this platform to the next level by incorporating cognitive-communication tools which will enhance the experience all around.

How do you prefer to start and end your day? 

• Well, I tend to be an early bird, at the start of my day I like to get organized, plan, review emails, etc., so that I can tackle the day efficiently. To end my day, I reflect on the one thing I did really well and the one thing I can improve next time. These are important parts of my work day, so I try not to book meetings early in my day or at the end of my day so I can work on projects and get organized and tackle the rest of the week.

What energizes you at work? 

• Positive team culture, acceptance of all input, being treated professionally, and laughter.

Tell us one thing most people don’t know about you.

• When I have time I like to dabble in photography, especially car photography.

What led you to this career path?

• I have been a Speech-Language Pathologist for approximately 20 years. For the last 7 years, I have primarily served in management. When I first decided to go into this field, it was because my grandmother had a stroke and I got to see an SLP work with her. I have always found the “detective” part of my job to be most intriguing in order to put the pieces together to help an individual. I then decided to move into more management/leadership roles primarily for contract therapy companies. As I continued into my career I would welcome all opportunities to learn and found myself in roles including compliance, therapy documentation auditing, audit tool development, quality assurance, clinical specialist, and eventually challenged myself to become a Dementia Certified trainer. My true passion is dementia and I love to give creative ideas on how to approach care for a patient’s best ability to function while also including their family/caregiver. By joining RESTORE-Skills I hope to push myself to grow in the area of technology and provide creative ideas and solutions in the continued development of games and resources.

What is your favorite thing to do when not at work? 

Building memories with my family. I like to spend time with my family boating, going to baseball games, and attending all kids' activities. Our family consists of Jakob (16), Alaina (13), Lacimarie (10), and Luke (7). I love attending my son’s swim meets and band functions. I also enjoy volunteering at the school or MAPS aviation museum and riding my Peloton when I get a chance.

Name the top destination on your must-visit list,

 Maldives or Tahiti

What’s changed you about the COVID-19 pandemic, and why?

• While working from home during the pandemic, I realized all the capabilities available with technology. It’s amazing how individuals initially in meetings became much more relaxed as the pandemic continued including myself. I certainly missed living life and connecting with people outside of the home. The importance of keeping in touch with individuals who are most important to you and learning this from others across the board was eye-opening and also reinforced my passion as an SLP with communication and reinforced the surge of technology. A bonus is that platforms like RESTORE-Skills foster inclusion of family during sessions which was a wonderful way to connect.

What do you do at RESTORE-Skills and in what circumstances would I come to you for something?

• My focus at RESTORE is to ensure the clinical success of our users by providing education, program development, and support. I am passionate about educating and developing for clinicians to enhance their competence in caring for the population they serve. With my experience in several clinical roles, I have supervised clinicians, developed mentoring programs, delivered education to advance clinical knowledge, and expanded resources to support practice. As a result, I jumped at the opportunity to join RESTORE, utilizing these skills to revolutionize skill-building. Customers will come to me with any clinical needs for my support of clinical success.

What energizes you at work?

• It's exciting to witness clinical success after a clinician has used a new technique or strategy with their patients! I am passionate about person-centered dementia care and am a PAC Certified Independent trainer eager to change the culture in dementia care. The positivity of my team energizes me, and we do not have a lack of energy at RESTORE  - we are all focused on the common goal of revolutionizing skill-building and are so excited to find opportunities to support our customers.

What three words would your friends use to describe you?

• Outgoing, compassionate, respectful

If you could snap your fingers and become an expert in something, what would it be?

• I would become an oncologist. Cancer is highly prevalent in my family, and I would love to find a cure to protect others from losing loved ones.

What led you to this career path?

• My bachelor’s degree is in Early Childhood Education, and one of my courses was taught by a speech therapist. I researched career responsibilities and continued with a master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology. I always thought I would work with a pediatric population. However, I was introduced to adult care during my second-year clinical rotations. Through this experience, I gained a passion for identifying and supporting functional changes in cognition, communication, and swallowing. Fast forward several years with a practice in long-term care, I truly found my niche in supporting healthcare providers to be the most successful they can be. I held positions supervising therapists, developing resources, performing training, and assisting with clinical support. When the opportunity to join RESTORE opened, I jumped at the chance to channel my clinical knowledge into a gamification platform that can increase patient participation while reducing refusal and social isolation.

What’s something you recently saw that made you smile?

• My 3-year-old daughter Isabella laughing hysterically at Peppa Pig on the television.

What’s one song or artist you are embarrassed to admit you like?

• Justin Bieber- in his recent work, not the early pop stuff. But, I can’t help it, I enjoy the tunes!

What is the most exotic food you have ever tried?

• Squid ink and several other local dishes in the Basque Country in Spain

Are you a dog person or a cat person (or neither)?

• Dog person- I have two sweet labrador rescues (Emma and Maggie) who have traveled all across the country with us.

If you could choose a superpower, what would it be?

• Teleportation, so I could travel anywhere anytime.

What is the top destination on your must-visit list?

• Italy as I would love to visit the hometowns of my great grandparents

What’s changed you about the COVID-19 pandemic, and why? 

• I have focused more on work-life balance due to the transition to remote work and realizing that time is precious. We need to make every day count with the ones we love. I am very dedicated to my work and at times I allowed it to consume my home life. 

What do you do at RESTORE-Skills and in what circumstances would I come to you for something?

I am very passionate about Customer Success and have joined RESTORE so I may leverage my experience to enhance the customer experience. I am very focused on the customer journey and alignment with our client’s business goals. I feel strongly about partnering with our clients to achieve desired outcomes, truly understanding any challenges they are facing, and developing strong relationships. I am most excited about developing our processes and team to ensure we deliver the best experience possible for our customers. 

How do you prefer to start and end your day?

I am an early bird, so I like to get a workout in the morning and then start my workday by looking at my plans for the day/week, calendar invites for the week, action items, and emails. I do the same at the end of the day (except the workout). I try not to book meetings at the beginning and end of the day so I can get organized.

What is your favorite thing to do when not at work? 

Go to the pool with my family. We have a little girl, Ava, that is learning to swim. She is 3 ½ years old and loves the pool/water play. She used to be afraid of getting her face wet and now she dunks herself and can hold her breath. When we travel, we try to look for places that have a water park nearby or a great pool area for us and Ava.

What led you to this career path? 

I started in Account Management just after undergrad. Back then we physically drove to our accounts and held meetings onsite as the primary method of engagement. This is before SaaS was popular and customer success was not established. I did that for several years for multiple companies until I entered into the tech space and there was a shift from reactive account management to proactive customer success. I loved working with software and engaging with large complex clients. I worked in healthcare prior to completing my degree in Biomedical Science (pharmacy and then orthopedics) and was always drawn to that industry. 

What’s one thing most people don’t know about you? 

I played competitive softball. My team won the Little League Softball World Series and had the opportunity to travel playing against teams from all over the world. 

Are you a dog person or a cat person (or neither)? 

We have both, but my dog is my #1.

What’s one song artist you are embarrassed to admit you like? 

Song “Time after Time” by Cyndi Lauper. I may not be embarrassed, but I will certainly sing along when I hear it. 

If you could only eat one food item for the rest of your life, what would it be? 

Tacos - they are so versatile! 

What three words would your friends use to describe you? 

Positive, fun, caring. 

What is the top destination on your must-visit list? 

Italy. My grandmother is from a small town there. 

What’s changed you about the COVID-19 pandemic, and why? 

I let go of expectations when working remotely (for the most part).  During the height of COVID, we had a unique opportunity to get a glimpse into client’s personal lives as well as coworkers. We would see kids, pets, family members on camera and it was completely normal. I stopped worrying so much about ensuring my background was perfect and it was completely quiet at home. I worked remotely part of the week prior to the pandemic and was always overly concerned about those things. 

What do you do at RESTORE-Skills & in what circumstances would I come to you for something?

In my role as Chief Technology Officer, my primary responsibility is to help turn the strategic vision of our digital health platform into reality. I focus on prioritizing areas that will add the greatest value to our end-users in the shortest possible time while providing an optimal user experience. Bringing, seeing, experiencing joy across our customer base is what truly drives me. You would come to me if you are experiencing a technical challenge in engaging with our platform or to make recommendations for ways in which we can enhance your experience through game/feature development, data capture, and outcome reporting needs.

Who has influenced you most when it comes to how you approach your work?

I am honestly touched by recent remarks by Elon Musk, saying “It doesn’t matter what you build, the question is are you building the best product possible?” Attention to detail earns immediate respect even in the parts that others won’t necessarily see.

Are you a dog person or a cat person (or neither)?

Apparently a dog person. While I love our cat Coda, our new puppy Tobi is completely stealing the show.

How do you prefer to start and end your day?

I start each day with a simple plan before me that I believe I can accomplish. If I make a solid dent in it, that day then it has been a success. To end my day, I like to put out my accomplishments for either my team or customers to see. Quick feedback makes the world go round and lets us all build beautiful things together.

What energizes you at work?

Interesting technical challenges that make a visible difference in user experience or the life of my colleagues. Turning interesting ideas into elegant designs and seeing them come to life.

What’s one song/artist you are embarrassed to admit you like?

Rockefeller Street by Nightcore is a song I love jamming out to in the car. In fact, if we take a car for a test drive I want to hear how it is going to sound on that sound system.

What led you to this career path?

As I progressed through my career as a software engineer I understood that underlying technologies and implementation are only a small part of the product. If we were to build something meaningful we need to care about the well-being of those that create and support what we build. We need to make sure that the time our customers spend with our product is meaningful and that we are honest about the role we play in their lives. This product really gives me an opportunity to build something truly impactful and work with a wonderful team to find what it ultimately is.

What do you do to turn things around when you are having a bad day?

Step back from a problem to drop the stress level then step back and ask important questions. Sort out what is the true goal here that will benefit everyone involved.

What’s one hobby you would love to get into?

Kite sailing has captured my imagination at the moment. Being at the edge of two elements is hyper-focused and an exceptionally freeing experience.

What’s changed you about the COVID-19 pandemic, and why?

What we are doing here and now in RESTORE-Skills was made essential and apparent through this pandemic. We can bring joy into the lives of our loved ones and make them stronger and healthier at the same time. What could be better than that?