There’s a version of this story that starts with a résumé. Government spokeswoman. Global agency strategist. Philanthropy advisor to foundations moving billions of dollars. But résumés are organized backward, they show where you ended up, not how you learned to think.

Here’s how I actually learned to think about impact: by watching what happens when systems are designed well and what gets left behind when they’re not. In government, I watched communications collapse under the weight of institutional inertia. In philanthropy, I watched brilliant strategy stall because the partnerships weren’t built to hold. And in my own neighborhood, on a Sunday morning in 2017, I watched a group of kids discover that they could make something from nothing — clay into sculpture, silence into hip-hop — and I thought: this is the thing that doesn’t get funded. This is the gap I can fill.

When I started Forti Collective, I wasn’t building a consultancy. I was naming a philosophy. Forti — from the Latin fortis, meaning strong. Not powerful. Not dominant. Strong, which is a different thing entirely. Strong is earned. Strong is repeatable. Strong is the thing you have left when the grant cycle ends and the campaign is over and the partner moves on. I help organizations get strong. That’s the work.

That’s EAST, the Eastern Market Art Series & Teachings, and it has cost me exactly zero consulting fees and given me more than any engagement in my career. It’s also where I learned something I’ve since brought back to every foundation boardroom and NGO strategy session: that durable impact isn’t built by the people who write the checks. It’s built by the people who show up, season after season, because the work matters. And when I decided to become a certified personal trainer, I believed, without reservation, that physical strength and strategic strength are built the same way. I wasn’t pivoting, I was extending. The same systems thinking that builds a partnership framework for an international NGO is the same thinking that builds a training program for a body that needs to last. I don’t have three careers. I have one philosophy, expressed three ways.

I work with

• Foundations and philanthropic offices

• International NGOs and nonprofits

• Agencies and mission-driven enterprises seeking scaled impact

More importantly, I work with people who want to get things done. We are a good fit if you…

• Like clear, direct communication

• Are kind

• Care about measurable results

• Value the importance of team collaboration and mind share