A meaningful company culture and a connected employee experience are exactly the kind of investments every leader wants to make in their people — until growth accelerates, budgets tighten, or leadership's attention shifts elsewhere. Culture quietly becomes something that happens to a company instead of something it shapes on purpose. If that sounds familiar, you're not alone, and it's not too late to change course.

My 20+ years of designing and producing internal culture programs at companies like Activision, Scopely, and TCW Group inform how I build culture strategy today.

I didn't set out to build company culture. I went to film school chasing a different kind of production — creating moments that brought people together. What I found was that the most powerful version of that work wasn't on a screen. It was inside the events, programs, and everyday experiences that shape how people feel about where they work.

Those years of experience taught me what actually moves the needle — and now I'm turning them into culture strategy for growing companies, translating investment in people into measurable business return.

A few of those moments stand out:

I helped build, launch and scale a proprietary training program that grew into a company-wide platform for skill development — contributing to $200M in additional client revenue as employees' growing expertise translated directly into stronger client relationships, and earning recognition as ASTD's Best Internal Training Program. I also grew a companion internship program into a genuine talent pipeline, designed to shorten new hires' time to full productivity.

I built a global volunteer program from the ground up, growing it from a concept to a beloved program with thousands of participants across multiple countries — extending real support to the veteran community it served, and earning recognition as a Halo Award finalist for group volunteerism. Executives participated side-by-side with entry-level staff on the same shift, ensuring leadership participation was part of the culture investment.

And I turned a purposeless company-wide celebration into a mission- and vision-driven event, using in-person connection across hybrid teams to build relationships and ties to company values that outlasted the day itself — one of several cultural initiatives I led that contributed to the company earning Comparably's Best Company Culture award in 2025.

My superpower: I see more potential in an idea than the person who handed it to me ever imagined — then I build it into something real, designed to last.

I founded Gather By Design to help companies develop and scale culture that works — for the business, and for the people building it.