My path to becoming a lawyer started earlier than most. I was just 11 years old. My friends and I would play with our Barbies. But their dolls were always beautiful flight attendants and mine was, well … you guessed it — the lawyer for the flight attendants. You can imagine how thrilled I must have been to learn I was admitted to law school, passed the bar exam on my first try, and landed a job. It seemed like a dream come true! Sadly, for me, this dream quickly became a nightmare. I soon discovered I hated practicing law and realized the career I had spent decades working toward was not for me. Maybe because I was not with the right firm, or because my boss never really cared to train me. Or — even worse — that the practice of law itself was not what I wanted to do.

But what did I know? When you are fresh out of law school and offered a position — any position — you take it. It was a challenging time for me. I languished for years trying to find the right practice. At the same time, I got married, had children, and new priorities took over. Deep down, I still yearned for meaning, purpose, and fulfillment.

I joined a women’s advocacy organization to keep my brain working. Our group would travel to Tallahassee, the state capital, once a year to talk to legislators about choice, academic freedom, and other socially progressive causes. It was on one of these trips that my legislator decided to retire, and I decided to run for the state house. Politics had always held a keen interest for me, so despite being a huge underdog (the woman I ran against was a two-term member of the school board) I went for it, and I won! I spent the next eight years in the state legislature and then served on the Broward County Board of County Commissioners for 10 years, with one term as mayor.

Somehow, I summoned up the courage to take that great leap and it paid off, but not without its price. My children were only five and eight years old when I was elected the first time. And I was criticized for leaving them to pursue a career in politics. In fact, one of my male opponents in one of my races had four children under 10 years of age but no one ever criticized him for doing the same. Consumed with guilt, I persevered and continued my life in public service. It seems funny now, but my children, who are all grown, do not ever remember me not being there, even though I remember every single time I missed one of their roller hockey or T-ball games!

After 10 years as a county commissioner and almost 20 years in elected office, I grew weary of the political battles all politicians often fight. And I grew even wearier of the ones a woman politician must fight (age, height of your heel, color of your hair, length of your skirt) which grew worse with the advent of social media and the cowardly commenters hiding behind an anonymous avatar. So I took another leap, and it was a big one! I wanted to be the president and CEO of Visit Lauderdale (back then it was the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau), and I wanted it badly.

I always longed to do something more positive in my community. But it would be another long and hard battle to get here. There was so much opposition to a politician taking this position even though it is a highly political job where I must speak to elected officials and leaders in the community on a regular basis. My relationships with so many of these colleagues went back years, which would be an advantage for me and the agency. Just as in the past, when I had sought a brass ring that appeared too far away, I put my head down and persevered. And this time was no different. In the end, the county administrator took a huge leap of faith by refusing to give into the opposition and appointed me. Now, seven years later, here I am at the helm of Visit Lauderdale.

Since the time I took this role, we have increased our yearly visitation, nearly doubled our bed tax revenue, re-branded the look and feel of our agency, and embraced our core values of diversity and inclusion in everything we do. It is safe to say that Visit Lauderdale has done this at a time in Florida where there are attempts to legislate away those values and marginalize and dehumanize the people we represent. It now seems like my work life has come full circle. I started out advocating on issues I feel passionate about and have ended up at the same spot. I guess you can take the woman out of politics, but you can’t take politics out of the woman!