Consultant to biomedical companies and to international development organizations
Morocco 1999–2001
Stalled in commute traffic approaching South San Francisco, I had a realization. At age 52, I’d met my financial, professional, and personal goals. I either needed to change those goals to justify suffering my commute or else get out of the commute lane. I wanted to test life-long learning, to experience another culture, and give something back.
In Settat, Morocco, I taught business students and worked with a developing artisan business, planning to export representative Moroccan arts. I also helped tailor Camp GLOW (“Girls Leading Our World”) for adolescent girls.
I have continued to work with motivated entrepreneurs in developing countries: weavers in Lesotho, vendors in Sudan, farmers in Malawi and Ghana, businesspeople in the former Soviet Union, and women entrepreneurs in the Middle East. A couple of years ago, through International Executive Service Corps, I implemented a program in Juba, Southern Sudan, providing basic business skills and HIV/AIDS training. These strong people taught me two valuable lessons: one, about how much individuals can accomplish, even under difficult circumstances; and, two, about how valuable and tenuous our democracy is.