#HERstory: Celebrating Women’s History Month 2024

Where did you grow up and what did you study?

I was born in Arlington, Texas. My family then moved to Kansas City, Missouri where we lived until I was about 7 when we moved to a small town in Indiana, called Newburgh. I went to college at Indiana University in Bloomington where I majored in business with a concentration in finance. While I was there, I was also a student athlete on the track and field team.

What advice would you offer young women aspiring to enter the field of finance?

Take the initiative. Opportunities are not going to be given to you. So, you really need to seek them out, volunteer where you can, and be okay if you’re being tasked with a mundane task, try to find the positive in it, find a teachable moment. I think another equally important aspect would be to have confidence. And if you don’t feel confident, you should find a solution for that. It could just be a matter of researching or learning more about the role or the task. Another area would be to find a mentor, maybe someone that knows you very well can provide you good feedback or a subject matter expert in the area to help you learn.

What is your favorite memory from your career so far?

My favorite part of my job today is the client interaction. We have some wonderful clients here at Kayne and getting to know them, their backgrounds, how they became successful in their own right has been very fascinating to me. I think for me, that is probably the most rewarding part of my job.

Outside of work, what activities or hobbies bring you joy and why are they important to you?

I love to spend as much time as I can with my two-year old son, my family, and my friends. I also enjoy working out. I’m really into Pilates and Orange Theory. I also love anything food related, so whether that be cooking or hosting dinner parties or just checking out a new LA restaurant. I think it’s also important to have healthy outlets for stress, and I think working out is one that really provides me that ability to kind of de-stress.

Where did you grow up and what did you study?

I’m a California native. I spent my younger years in Southern California and then in seventh grade my mom got accepted to law school at UC Davis, so the whole family moved up to Davis in Northern California, and I spent the rest of my growing up years up in Northern California. I studied business economics at UC Santa Barbara.

What key lessons have you learned that you wish you knew when starting your career?

The lessons that I wish I knew when I was first starting my career is to not be afraid to ask questions and don’t be afraid if you don’t know something. I think we all start off as young people trying to think that I should know everything before I tackle a problem and that’s just not the case. And hopefully, what you learn is that curiosity and being a lifelong learner will serve you well throughout your career. I still learn things all the time every single day, and curiosity gets you a lot of good places. You don’t have to hide what you don’t know.

What is your favorite memory from your career so far?

It’s really hard to pinpoint a favorite memory. I’ve been at Kayne for 25 years, so it would be really hard to find one memory. But I think what I would take away is the things that have made the biggest difference in my career are the ones where I was willing to take a chance and a risk that maybe people would have advised against. I think one of the things that was probably the biggest changer in my career was coming to Kayne in the first place. I left a very large firm to come to a small firm, Kayne was a very small firm 25 years ago. But I’m so glad that I took that chance because it made all the difference in the world in my career. Know your personality and be willing to take chances where you think that it could make a difference because that can be where the most change will happen.

Outside of work, what activities or hobbies bring you joy and why are they important to you?

My biggest joy is my family. Anything we do together, I’m happy to do, whether that be traveling or cooking or eating or hanging out, my family will always be my biggest source of joy.

Where did you grow up and what did you study?

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley. I studied economics at the University of California, Irvine. I got my master’s degree in business administration from USC.

What advice would you offer young women aspiring to enter the field of finance?

There are so many different types of positions in the investment industry. You can work in marketing, be client-facing, or if you are very analytical, you might be a portfolio manager or an analyst. You can also have an administrative role and work in the back office. My advice would be to look at your current skillset and ask: What are you really good at? What are you interested in? Are you interested in speaking with clients? Do you have leadership skills? Take that assessment of yourself and try to find a job that fits that within the investment industry.

What key lessons have you learned that you wish you knew when starting your career?

Something I think what is important in life in general, not just in a career, is timing. One of the things I’ve learned through my career is trying to make sure that the other person that I’m speaking to or group of people that I’m speaking to are receptive to my ideas and that they’re in a space where they can really hear and listen to what I’m saying. I really believe that timing is an essential part in any career path or any type of pitch or question you might want to ask if you really want someone to hear you.

Outside of work, what activities or hobbies bring you joy and why are they important to you?

I really enjoy traveling because I like just being around friends and family when you go on those trips. It’s really a great time to interact with them and spend quality time. Also, when you travel to different places, you really are able to experience other people’s culture and really get a different perspective on life.