All my life, I’ve been a misfit.

When I was 17, I wrote in my journal that I hoped to save lives, and do “something meaningful for the World Health Organization and United Nations someday.”

But that was all it was – a faraway dream.

For years, I felt I was walking in a tunnel. My gifts in art and storytelling always felt out of place in Medicine.

My humanitarian interests felt futile, at best.

When I was 18, I lived with a group of abandoned girls in Nepal, amidst bomb blasts and riots, for 6 weeks.

One day, the landlord evicted us suddenly. My world shattered.

How could this happen? What could I do?

I wanted to paint a picture book to raise funds for a permanent home for them. 

But the dream felt too small – who would believe in me?

Yet, through a miracle, my first book “Kitesong,” raised over $100’000 to build a permanent home for the girls, changing their lives – and mine, forever.

Since then, my life has been marked by a passion to inspire others to believe in the power of small dreams.

Through a series of unusual decisions, I ended up founding Kitesong Global, raising over a million dollars for underserved communities, travelling around the world for humanitarian work, and marrying an incredible cancer-surviving, post-transplant Iron Man, Cliff.

Entirely by accident, I stumbled into the COVID-19 outbreak response and found my niche as a Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) Specialist.

Working with partners like the World Health Organization, United Nations and Ministries of Health around the world to save lives became reality.