I’m passionate about empowering others and helping them to shine in a way that is authentic to them. I'm also a consumer enthusiast who loves brands that empower communities. 

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As a former consultant and now Harvard MBA, I am applying my passion for elevating the stories and experiences of overlooked consumers through the products that they use. CPG plays a significant role in consumers' identities and, and my mission is to make consumers feel seen, heard, and confident in who they are and how they show up. \n  \n Professionally, I have gained a number of skills from my almost 6 years in consulting including: project management, cross-functional collaboration, executive communication, data analysis, budget management, and human capital management. Through my internships in early-stage VC and at Procter & Gamble I learned investor relations and brand management respectively. As an entrepreneur I've learned strategic branding, partnerships, digital strategy, and scrappiness.  \n  \n  I wouldn’t be where I am today, without countless professionals and friends mentoring me. I am passionate about paying it forward to help provide access to knowledge that will help other break down barriers and eradicate statistics. If you would like to chat about career, life, or business school, schedule a chat and let’s get to work!

Hey there! I’m Leigh, a recent Harvard Business School MBA grad, pursuing a career focused on the intersection of strategy and social impact. Let me tell you my story.

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I graduated from Wellesley College at 22 thinking I had everything figured out. I had a great job in a city that I was excited about. I negotiated a salary that I was proud of and that would allow me to start the life I wanted. I was living with a good friend and had a community of college friends with whom to share the New York City experience. And yet... I felt lost. I started my job, and feeling unchallenged, under-stimulated, and undervalued, I quickly learned that it wasn't for me. I was overwhelmed by the size of the city and didn't know my place in it. I was working long hours and didn't have the time that I wanted and needed to take care of myself. For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel that I was learning, and felt pressure to find new educational channels. 

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Ultimately, I took a big risk. I left finance and New York City, took a 60% pay cut, and moved to Boston to work in an unconventional consulting role for a professor. It was because of the challenges that I struggled with in New York - allowing me to reflect and grow - that I could make progress in moving toward my passions and goals. 

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But, uncertainty, unease, and change aren’t parts of life that just go away, or that you simply grow out of. My pivoting career-wise was the progress I needed back in 2019. Now in new season of life as a newly minted MBA, I’m still addressing that familiar “lost” feeling although from a different standpoint. Facing a tough job market, I’m needing to define my goals and success more definitively than ever before. I often feel stuck in the comparison that “everyone else has it figured out,” and staying steadfast in what I care about and what I do and don’t want is more easily said than done. And yet, I’m learning to embrace the stillness and freedom of this reflective moment. I get to decide what progress means to me at age 29, and I’m growing in that process. 

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Twenty is the resource I needed out of college to help reflect upon and grow from change. It’s a resource that I still need today to help me reflect and learn in moments when the path ahead isn’t clear. I hope to be a mentor to those like my younger self, who could use the wisdom of someone with just a little bit more experience and distance. I also hope to be a mentor to those who find themselves struggling with the question marks that are inherently part of life as a 20-something. (I promise, no one has it all figured out!)

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I look forward to connecting & hearing your story. 

I’m a mixed race design leader & strategist. I was born in New York City’s Chinatown and spent most of my childhood on the Jersey Shore. I can’t be away from the ocean for too long and jump in to mark moments of transition, no matter the season.

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I’ve spent my entire career finding the right intersection of creativity, learning, and supporting my almost-but-not-quite bi-coastal lifestyle.

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I love postcards, Little Free Libraries, and my cattle dog mix, Luna.

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I've tiptoed around teaching professionally for my whole life, from teaching SAT prep classes in college, to being a volunteer ESL teacher in NYC, to spending a year at a university in Brazil as an English Teaching Assistant. Ultimately, I like being able to form meaningful relationships with my students and have learning go both ways, which usually means small group or 1:1 relationships with other adults or near peers.

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I've volunteered with Braven for over a year as a Leadership Coach for their Accelerator program at San Jose State University, leading 8 students through a course that included career coaching and a design thinking capstone challenge. My team won the challenge, but it wasn't about winning ;) Afterward, I became a Professional Mentor, working 1:1 with students to help them find a job.

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I’ve also deeply benefitted from mentoring and coaching in my own professional career. It’s helped me get over humps of insecurity, little and big, and lean into opportunities I wouldn’t have dreamed of before.

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I try to overindex on supporting students who wouldn't otherwise have mentorship support, whether they're first-generation college students, BIPOC, or don't have a degree.

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 In my job as a Senior Director at IDEO, I regularly mentor and guide more junior designers and design teams on client work, and more informally through ERGs and programs like Color by Design, an apprenticeship for BIPOC Design Researchers.

Professionally, I began my career as an educator after I got my Masters. I really loved the idea of my students finding their own voice and driving their own learning. I tried to use technology as a way to allow students to dive into what they loved to learn about in the way they loved to learn it.

I moved from New York to San Francisco in 2015 and joined a company called AltSchool in its early stages. They were personalizing learning for students using innovative technology and I learned first hand what being involved in a startup meant. I felt like I was at “Startup University”- I learned about office culture, work relationships, being part of a team, how to make a slide deck, and more. I also learned about how teams connect and interact and how being a collaborative partner and connective tissue within an organization holds so much value.

Over the past 5 years or so I moved out of K12 education/edtech and into early childhood/parenting technology. I have two of my own children (4 and 2) and know first hand just how much information parents need about parenting. Through my work at Higher Ground Education/Guidepost Montessori as well as Lovevery, I have helped organizations reimagine their place in the world of parenting startups and rethink how parents access content related to parenting.

I have launched new digital products and services for families and understand the cross functional nuances that go into building something from scratch. I am a user-first driven creator and always think about the experience of the person using the product.

Personally, I love cooking and all things food-related. I also am an ex-theater major and to listen to Broadway show tunes and sing to myself in the car. My kids think I’m nuts. I promise I won’t burst into song on our call!!  I look forward to connecting with you and learning more together!

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In previous mentoring experiences, I've guided other creatives (brand and product designers) through navigating an in-house design role; I've also offered advice around freelance and recharging from work.

Twenty excites me because I'm able to give back to the generation beyond me, and in a sense be able to give back to my past 20-odd-year-old self. And at least in unprecedented times, trying to alleviate some of the stress navigating through those uncertainties.

1. Born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit Michigan
2. Went to the University of Michigan
3. Moved to LA, worked in consulting and contracted for Apple
4. Hired by Apple full-time, moved to SF, discovered a love for the outdoors
5. Pandemic hit, moved to Chicago, discovered a love for cooking and met my partner
6. Wanted to focus my life on the outdoors, so moved to Denver CO, still working for Apple

Why am I here?

I've had the pleasure of having mentors in my life who helped me through some of the most challenging times. Im here to do the same for others.

Im currently at Apple building computer vision algorithms for the cameras hundreds of millions of people use. I love it and the life I’ve built. The least I can do is give a helping hand.

My name is Katia and I am the Head of Product at Mighty, a platform that empowers the next generation through creativity and the skills of entrepreneurship. I’ve been a part of the NYC tech scene for 7 years now as a product manager and project lead. Over time I’ve discovered that I have a knack for nurturing happy, cross-functional teams and am obsessed with building playful consumer products that help individuals believe in themselves and realize their potential. Eventually, I’d like to launch a company of my own.

So why am I here? I see mentoring as a skill and a give and take. I get mentored and like to mentor as way of improving my capabilities and a way passing it forward. But also, I enjoy human connections more than anything else. I can’t wait to partner together to help you navigate a defining decade and this beautiful thing called life.

Hey hey! I’m Katie, the founder & ceo of twenty! Up to this point, I’ve been building twenty behind the scenes, but I got FOMO… so now I’m here to join the party 🙂 Can’t wait to meet many of you in person - I’ve heard so much about you!!

To give a more “formal” introduction…

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• I’m a hybrid product x design x startup leader trained at Stanford, IDEO, & Harvard Business School. I've spent my career launching new products, programs, & ventures in education.
• I also serve as a global advocate for women's rights x education. Over the years, I've worked & lived at a K-12 boarding school in India, helped scale a menstrual healthcare organization in Uganda, and co-founded my own nonprofit, Girl Possible. We first launched on Kickstarter and spent 14 weeks roadtripping across the US in an RV, teaching design thinking & leadership workshops for girls across 32 states.
• My work has been featured in Fast Company, Lean In, Ms. Magazine, SXSW Edu, and Edtech Insiders. I've also taught at Stanford's d.school and Harvard's Graduate School of Education and joined top startup / VC programs like On Deck Founders, Galvanizer, & Reach Roadrunners.

  But here’s my real talk, just for twenty:

• I think navigating your twenties is hard, complicated, emotional, transformational, intense… all of the things. I think we receive ZERO training on how to make the most of this “defining decade” and that colleges / schools are designed to just pump us out like machines with fancy degrees on paper but no actual sense of where we belong in the real world and how to define success on our own terms, outside of a report card.
• I’ve been through my fair share of ups & downs, trying to figure out what I really want and how to get there. I’ve been a marketer, a designer, a business development operator, a founder (non-profit and for-profit), a full-time “gap year” volunteer & globe-trotter, a “design program manager,” a consultant, etc. I studied engineering and product design, then got my MBA. I feel like a real “jill of all trades”—mediocre at a LOT of things but expert at none. At first, this gave me a ton of anxiety, but now I think it’s my superpower.
• At first, I also felt pressure to set a 5-10 year career plan & stick to it. Now, I refuse to lock myself into anything of the sort. We are constantly pivoting, evolving, & growing in unexpected, beautiful ways, and for me, embracing that journey (rather than the “destination”) is one of the greatest joys of life.
• I’m obsessed with asking both myself and others, “what would you regret NOT doing?” and live my life by that principle. I’m a fiery creator, product-builder, and people-connector. Nothing energizes me more than meeting new people (like you!) and asking them the real deal, big life questions - what do you really want to do, and how can you get there?

  With all this in mind, I can’t wait to meet you. Thank you for being here 🫶

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