What does it cost to do something that matters?

I grew up in North Carolina in a small town with a strong family. I studied Middle Grades Education and English in college, fell in love with my high school sweetheart, and married Matt at barely 21. We had no idea what we were signing up for, where the path would take us.

In 2010, we moved to Northern Thailand with nine suitcases and our three small kids, ages 3, 5, and 7. We had taken a two-year contract to help run a charitable foundation which served vulnerable girls with housing and education, many of them orphans.

And then we started hearing stories. Girls from nearby villages were being trafficked into red light districts. Men would come to these remote villages and trick families with false job promises; young teen girls would be sold into the world of sex trafficking. Matt and I were both horrified that this was a reality for the communities we were serving. We knew we needed to step in.

After nearly a year of research on the ground with partners, Matt was deputized as an undercover informant for law enforcement, tasked with identifying children being sold for sex. He started wearing covert gear, working cases with police throughout the country, and seeing the worst abuses imaginable.

It was heartbreaking work on every level for both of us.

In 2012, we started The Exodus Road, a nonprofit with the mission to provide a path out of modern slavery. We were two very ordinary people, tackling a complex issue, with little funding, enormous risk, and even bigger audacity. We started partnering with law enforcement to find and free trafficked people, mostly children, throughout Thailand. Our first successful case resulted in freedom for 7 children. One of them was a girl named Sarah. She was only 15 when she was sold by her mother.

I raised our kids among the rice fields of Asia by day and held the weight of the work by night. I walked with my husband through increasingly dangerous and complex cases: against the mafia, in remote areas, despite corrupt systems. He and I started building the nonprofit as a means to fund the work that continued to expand to new teams, countries, and law enforcement agencies. I built the brand, the communications, the culture, serving as VP of Marketing, then Chief Communications Officer, then President. All while being a wife and a mom, trying to hold all of it together across multiple countries and cultures.

In 2021, I became CEO, primarily as a result of crisis. My husband needed to step back for a season after a decade of intense, global undercover work. The organization was in a financial and cultural crisis. We had teams and offices in five countries with our headquarters in Colorado, where we were living. It was all about to fall apart.

I stepped into the CEO position reluctantly, and it became a laboratory where I learned, mostly through failure, conflict, and obstacles I never signed up for, including being targeted online by the very criminal networks we were fighting.

I learned over time to redefine what successful leadership looks like. I began to understand that psychological safety isn't a strategy. It's the foundation. That listening isn't passive, it's radical. That the most important work any leader does starts long before they walk into the room. I found myself in new ways, along the way.

Since becoming CEO, I've gotten to lead our team in growing the organization to 86% financial increase in just four years. Our program impact has grown exponentially in every category. We've done case work in over 20 countries now. We have remarkable people pushing freedom forward. But the metric I'm most proud of? The culture we've built. The team and organization are healthier now than they've ever been. My husband is, too. So am I.

The Exodus Road's work has evolved into much more than the type of work we did in the beginning. Now, our work with police globally involves training, technology programs, open source intelligence and digital forensics. Today, we have trauma-informed aftercare programming to walk alongside survivors, including a full-time residential program that has seen a 99% success rate in keeping survivors free long-term. We also have prevention education programming that helps people protect themselves. I helped spearhead a federally-funded program called Influenced which teaches American teens, parents, and youth practitioners how to protect themselves from online exploitation. This is the next greatest public safety threat our kids face today.

I'm an Enneagram 3, an ENFJ, and Positivity is my top StrengthsFinder quality. Yes, that's actually true. I bring energy to the room, and I'm warm and relational. I believe the inner life matters. That you can lead well at work, love well at home, and keep your soul alive in the process, but only if you're paying attention. I'm also quietly pursuing a certification in interfaith spiritual direction, learning to tend the interior life that so many leaders neglect entirely. It has changed the way I lead and listen more than anything else I've ever done.

Outside of work you'll find me mostly in the mountains: hiking, exploring Colorado, traveling, reading, writing. I am still wildly in love with Matt, and we celebrate 30 years of marriage soon. We have three kids who are now young adults, pursuing their own adventures, and still my favorite people on the planet.

I have spent 15 years on the frontlines building, learning, failing, and growing. Now I want to give that back: through speaking, writing, and building community for anyone trying to do hard, meaningful work without losing themselves in the process.