Our Story

I was getting to the end of my college career and realized that I didn't really know what I wanted to do. Not surprising, I know, and not uncommon. I really love science and I had spent some time working in a lab, but I realized that that didn't give me the direct contact with other people that I was looking for. So as you could imagine, my next thought was, oh, I'll become a doctor. Right? So I went and did a lot of the pre-work needed for that, did all the coursework, took the MCATs. But as I got to the very end of my senior year, I realized, oh, I wanna make an impact on people's lives right now and maybe I'll revisit becoming a doctor later, but I'm not looking to go down the road of four years of school plus residency at this moment in time. And that's how I ended up becoming a Teach for America Core member, teaching high school science in East New York, Brooklyn. As I spent some time teaching, there were enough parts of the job that I love that I continued my career when I moved to Chicago all in, I spent nine years in the classroom and I really loved forming relationships with students and feeling like I was a part of helping them to achieve their hopes, their dreams, their goals. However, as many of you can imagine, I got a little bit burnt out, uh, by the end of my nine years teaching, and I was just tired of being at the whims of various administrations and different policies coming down the line. Right when I was looking to make this change, my father reached out to see if I might be interested in coming to work for him. He had started his own fee only registered investment advisory firm several years prior, and he was at the point of looking for support. As I talked to him, I realized I would be able to form great relationships with clients, much like I had with students, and also help 'em along the pathway to achieving their goals and dreams, while also maintaining a lot more autonomy. So I started in a support role at Clear Story in 2015, learning the ropes and supporting our clients, and I found that a lot of my skillset really did translate well into the financial planning profession. I brought with me some hard won expertise from my time teaching, from knowing how to calmly and compassionately communicate with clients, to breaking down difficult concepts and to knowing how to truly listen to someone to get to the root of the problem. I've really enjoyed getting to grow my skillset as a financial planner, as well as getting to know and love our clients. My father and I always had the end goal of my eventual succession in mind when we started this process. And in June of 2022, we fully completed his retirement outta the firm. And my transition into Principle of Clear Story Advisors.