About Irene
I have two strands that weave through every aspect of my life: building community and scientific inquiry. I was a peer counselor in high school — that senior shepherding a flock of freshmen through their new pasture. I was a dorm mom in college and a ropes course leader that could teach people to fly. My favorite part of my career as a educational and nonprofit leader has been growing leaders into their best selves and into a team that can achieve the seemingly impossible. As a community builder, I build a safe, intimate space where all people can be seen, heard, and valued for the authentic, messy miracle of a human they are inside. I also love science. I’m endlessly curious, with a sense of playful adventure. My fascination with brain and behavior led me to a PhD in neuroscience and a MA in psychology. I’ve been a middle school science teacher and university chairwoman. Today, I have powerful conversations with leaders that change their lives. My superpower is seeing the inner light in others and coaxing it to shine brighter.
About Irene’s CMBM experience
CMBM offered me such a treasured space to quilt together all the facets of my identity into a single whole: neuroscientist, human, teacher, mother, facilitator, leader. I never even noticed what I had been missing before, but now I’ve discovered a space within myself where I can be whole, authentic, and expressive of all of me in a single space — the good, the bad, the ugly. I feel like I can’t get enough of the sense of fulfillment and purpose that integration brings. I am now extending that whole-ness of being into my work as a thought leader, as a leadership coach, as a facilitator, and as a messy miracle of a human moving this world.
