FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GRACE WELLNESS INSTITUTE
Compassionate Guidance. Faith. Lasting Hope.
I believe people deserve more than credentials across the table from them. They deserve to feel seen, heard, respected, and understood.
For more than 25 years, my journey has brought me alongside individuals, families, leaders, organizations, and communities through some of life’s most difficult and transformative moments.
Today, my approach brings together professional education, behavioral health and crisis-response experience, leadership, faith when desired, and something that cannot be learned from a textbook alone, lived experience.
FROM SURVIVOR TO SERVICE
My journey did not begin with degrees, titles, leadership positions, or professional credentials.
WHERE MY STORY BEGAN
I was born in Costa Rica and spent part of my early childhood in difficult circumstances. My mother worked as a live-in maid, and for a time, we did not have a home of our own. She also worked on a coffee farm, and as a little girl, I carried my own small basket and helped her pick coffee.
My childhood was marked by trauma very early. I experienced childhood sexual abuse beginning at five years old. At six, I survived a near-fatal Doberman attack that injured my face, head, neck, and body, affected a major artery, and temporarily caused me to lose my voice.
When my mother came to the United States to build a better life for our family, I remained in Costa Rica for about a year before I was able to join her. That separation was extremely difficult. I was still a child, separated from my mother and trying to understand why she had left, even though the decision was made out of love and hope for a better future.
I arrived in the United states without speaking English. That transition brought its own challenges. I had to learn a new language while adjusting to an entirely new country, culture, and environment. My accent became something other children noticed and sometimes made fun of, adding another layer to the bullying and isolation I experienced growing up.
Learning English became one of my earliest accomplishments in this new chapter of my life, and I would later become a United States citizen.
After coming to the United States, I also witnessed my mother experience domestic violence. As a child, I remember the fear of seeing someone I loved being hurt and having to call the police for help. That experience taught me very early that violence affects not only the person being harmed, but the entire family around them.
SURVIVAL BECAME MY NORMAL
As I grew older, unresolved trauma began to shape my adolescence. I became an at-risk youth, experienced bullying, racism and suicidal thoughts, entered the foster care system, and became pregnant at fourteen. Because of my pregnancy, I left school in the eighth grade.
I was still a child, but life had already asked me to carry more than a child should have to carry.
During school vacations, I sometimes returned to Costa Rica and stayed with family. Those visits gave me something I desperately needed: peace.
Nature became one of the few things in my life that felt steady. Sitting outside, surrounded by the beauty of Costa Rica, helped ground me when so much around me felt uncertain.
One memory from Costa Rica has stayed with me all these years. A hummingbird once flew into our home and became trapped inside. It kept flying, trying to find its way out, until it became completely exhausted. When it finally slowed down, my mother gently picked it up, gave it water from the faucet, and let it rest in the palm of her hand before carrying it outside and setting it free.
I remember watching that tiny bird resting so peacefully in her hand. I had never been that close to a hummingbird before, and I have never experienced anything quite like it since.
That memory stayed in my heart. Over time, the hummingbird came to represent HOPE in uncertainty, PEACE in the middle of fear, and FREEDOM and eventually became part of the heart and identity of Grace Wellness Institute.
In the middle of my storms, nature remained constant.
“My story did not end in survival. It became a life of service.”
My journey later included domestic violence, divorce, substance abuse and recovery, grief, and other major life transitions. Each experience added another layer to my understanding of trauma, survival, family disruption, recovery, and the importance of having someone willing to stand beside you during life’s hardest seasons.
Those experiences later became part of the foundation for the work I do today with individuals, families, survivors, and communities navigating some of life’s most difficult circumstances.
A LIFE OF SERVICE
Service became one of the ways I learned to turn pain into purpose. What began as a desire to help others grew into more than 25 years of leadership, advocacy, ministry, community service, and work alongside individuals and families during some of life’s most difficult moments.
Over the years, I have served in churches, schools, hospitals, community organizations, behavioral health settings, correctional and juvenile justice programs, and workplaces. I have walked alongside children and teens, parents and families, trauma survivors, individuals facing mental health and substance use challenges, people experiencing grief and suicidal crisis, and those navigating major life transitions. Being there for those who feel alone, hopeless or misunderstood.
My service has also taken me into hospital emergency rooms, intensive care, oncology, labor and delivery, palliative care, crisis response, suicide prevention, family support, community outreach, mentoring, and leadership development.
But the titles, programs, and settings have never been the most important part.
The people have.
One lesson has stayed with me throughout every season of service:
“I’ve learned that people may forget what you said, people may forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
— Dr. Maya Angelou
Whether I am sitting with someone in crisis, supporting a grieving family, mentoring a young person, or walking beside someone rebuilding their life, I want people to leave our time together knowing they were seen, heard, valued, and treated with dignity.
For me, service is not simply part of my work.
It is part of who I am.
LOSS DEEPENED MY PURPOSE
In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, my sister Sailyn was carrying more than many people could see. Just two days after Thanksgiving, we lost her to suicide.
She had recently gone through a difficult divorce and was adjusting to life as a single parent. Her work hours had been reduced, the bills continued to come, and she had recently purchased a home that she was now in danger of losing. Like so many people during that season, she was navigating isolation, uncertainty, financial pressure, and the weight of trying to hold everything together. Over time, she began experiencing severe depression. Sailyn was not defined by those struggles. She was a sister, a daughter, a mother, a friend, and someone deeply loved by our family.
Long before losing her, I had already been involved in education, ministry, counseling, coaching, advocacy, crisis support, and suicide prevention work. Her death did not begin my commitment to helping others, but it changed the way I understood the impact of suicide on those left behind. I came to understand grief differently. I came to understand the unanswered questions, the pain carried by families, and the way one loss can ripple through generations, relationships, and entire communities.
After losing Sailyn, my work became even more intentional around suicide prevention efforts and supporting parents, siblings, children, loved ones, and communities navigating grief and the aftermath of suicide.
Her death deepened my existing commitment to suicide prevention and expanded my focus to include postvention, mental health advocacy, crisis response, trauma recovery, and family support.
Her life mattered.
Her story mattered.
And the people who are struggling today matter.
WHEN FAMILIES ARE FACING THE UNTHINKABLE
Compassionate presence during some of life's most difficult moments.
During my Clinical Pastoral Education at Northside Hospital Gwinnett, I had the privilege of walking alongside patients and families during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.
I served throughout the hospital, including the Emergency Department, ICU, Trauma, Oncology, Labor & Delivery, and Palliative Care, providing compassionate presence and emotional and spiritual support during medical crises, serious illness, grief, pregnancy and infant loss, end-of-life decisions, and unexpected loss.
Some moments called for prayer. Others called for listening, sitting quietly beside someone, supporting a family as they received devastating news, or simply making sure no one had to face an overwhelming moment alone.
This experience deepened something I had already learned through my own life: we may not always be able to change what someone is facing, but we can change how alone they feel while facing it.
LEADERSHIP BEYOND
GRACE WELLNESS INSTITUTE
Throughout my journey, I have been honored to serve through behavioral health leadership, workplace wellness, education, advocacy, and community service.
LEADERSHIP & EXECUTIVE EXPERIENCE
Founder & Executive Director
— Grace Wellness Institute
Founder & Executive Director
— NV MY HAIR SALON &
NV MY HAIR ACADEMY
Founder & Executive Director
— Charmed Boston
Founder & Executive Director
— BRAVE GIRLS RISE UP
Vice President & Director of Counseling
— Domestic Violence, SEDFOB Inc. | Local & International
Former Vice President & Operations Manager
— Venom Security & Protective Services, Inc.
Former PTA President & Vice President
— Collins Hill High School
Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
— Leadership, Service & Community Impact
25+ Years of Leadership & Organizational Experience
ADVOCACY & COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) — Prevention Education Committee | Healing Conversations Volunteer
Former Juvenile Justice Advisory Council Chairperson
Mental Health Advocacy & Volunteer Leadership with NAMI
Suicide Prevention & Postvention Advocacy
Community Mentor & Youth Advocate
Behavioral Health Educator
Family & Community Support
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH & CRISIS LEADERSHIP
Behavioral Health Crisis Responder | 988 Mobile Crisis
Corporate & Marketplace Chaplain
Chaplain — Northside Hospital Gwinnett
Behavioral Health Trainer
Workplace Wellness Consultant
Crisis Intervention & Resource Navigation
EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP
NASW Georgia Chapter
— MSW Student Representative
Public Speaker & Professional Trainer
Faith-Based Education & Ministry Leadership
Community & Organizational Leadership
Continuing Education & Professional Development
Creating safe spaces, strengthening people, and helping individuals, families, organizations, and communities move forward with compassion, integrity, and hope.
FROM VISION TO
REALITY
Entrepreneurship began early in my heart and service was always part of the vision.
As a child, I found creativity in an unexpected place. My mother had attended beauty school, and while she worked nights as a single mother, I often entertained myself with the mannequin heads and hair supplies she kept tucked away. I began experimenting, practicing, and teaching myself how to do hair.
After experiencing hair loss of my own, I became even more determined to understand styling, hair health, hair growth, the restoration process, natural products and how hair could affect confidence. People began noticing my work, and by around thirteen or fourteen, I was doing hair for people in my community. What began as a personal coping skill soon started opening doors I never expected.
That personal coping skill grew into a career in the beauty industry and became part of a lifelong commitment to serving others, sharing hope, and helping save lives. In many ways, for me, it became healing through art.
I attended and graduated from Empire Beauty School in Boston, became licensed as a cosmetologist and instructor, and later became a Master Certified Hair Loss Expert, hair extension and weaving specialist, celebrity stylist, beauty educator, and editorial/creative stylist. My work was featured in film, magazines, and media.
Over the years, my work received numerous awards, industry recognition, media features, and write-ups highlighting my hairstyling, hair-loss expertise, education, and creative work.
By my early twenties, that journey had taken me to Newbury Street in Boston, where I opened my first NV MY HAIR SALON. Establishing a business on one of Boston’s most prestigious and recognizable streets was a milestone I once could not have imagined.
I later expanded by opening a second NV MY HAIR SALON in Waltham, Massachusetts, followed by NV MY HAIR ACADEMY next door, a space where I could move beyond styling into education, mentorship, and professional training. I also worked with salon owners and their teams, providing specialized training in hair-loss techniques, hair extensions, and other advanced services to help strengthen their skills and expand the services they could offer their clients.
What began as a vision had grown into salons, an academy, opportunities for others, and a recognized presence in the beauty industry.
BUSINESS AND PURPOSE COMES TOGETHER
Building businesses taught me far more than how to create a successful service. I learned how to recognize a need, develop an idea, build a brand, create systems, lead people, educate others, solve problems, and turn a vision into something tangible.
As my career in the beauty industry grew, something else was happening quietly behind the chair. Clients began sharing their lives with me, their relationships, family challenges, grief, fear, stress, confidence, and some of the most personal things they were carrying. Listening came naturally to me, and so did offering encouragement, compassion, perspective, and support.
Over time, my chair became more than a place for styling. It became a place where people felt safe enough to talk. I learned early how important confidentiality, respect, empathy, and simply being present could be when someone was hurting. That became especially meaningful in my work with clients experiencing hair loss. Hair loss can be deeply personal and emotionally difficult, particularly when connected to chemotherapy, serious illness, or other major life challenges. I understood that I was not only helping someone with their appearance. I was often sitting with someone during one of the most vulnerable seasons of their life, listening to their fears and helping them feel seen, supported, and cared for.
That compassion eventually expanded beyond the salon. In 2008, I started Charmed Boston, a nonprofit initiative created to support women and children experiencing hair loss related to chemotherapy, terminal illness, and other serious health challenges. I was blessed to have a wonderful team of women who supported the vision. Joanna Petit-Frere and I visited hospitals throughout the Boston area, provided complimentary hair and makeup services, created private photo experiences, and gave each client a handmade charm bracelet as a reminder of their transformation.
I also provided wigs, many purchased personally and others generously donated, so clients could leave feeling more confident and more like themselves again.
Beauty became more than appearance. It became another way to restore dignity, confidence, and hope.
THE VISION CONTINUES
Today, the same creativity, compassion, and entrepreneurial spirit that shaped my early journey continue to guide my work.
As a Business Strategist & Visionary Consultant, I help entrepreneurs, professionals, leaders, and organizations take ideas that may exist only in their minds and begin giving them structure, strategy, and a path forward.
My work has also expanded into coaching, counseling, mental health support, trauma recovery, family support, and crisis-focused services through Grace Wellness Institute, allowing me to serve individuals and families in a deeper and more holistic way.
And while my work has evolved, I have never completely left the beauty industry. I continue to serve select private clients and remain involved through hair extensions and wig sales, salon staff trainings, speaking and specialized beauty services.
Each chapter has built upon the one before it, beauty, business, service, mental health, leadership, and vision, all becoming part of the work I do today.
I know what it feels like to see something before it exists and I know what it takes to build it.
WORKPLACE WELLNESS & CORPORATE CHAPLAINCY
Healthy organizations begin with healthy people.
As a Corporate and Marketplace Chaplain, workplace wellness consultant, and behavioral health professional, I partner with businesses, healthcare organizations, nonprofit agencies, churches, schools, and community leaders throughout Georgia and beyond to strengthen employee well-being, leadership, and organizational health.
My work includes confidential employee support, corporate chaplain services, behavioral health and crisis support, grief and bereavement care, leadership coaching, trauma-informed training, conflict resolution, professional development, workplace wellness initiatives, and organizational support.
I also support individuals, couples, and families navigating challenges that can affect both personal and professional well-being, including trauma, grief, addiction recovery, relationship concerns, parenting stress, family dynamics, and major life transitions.
This includes support for blended families, remarried couples, stepfamilies, co-parenting challenges, children adjusting to new family relationships, sibling conflict, and couples working to build trust, communication, and stability as two families come together.
Whether supporting an individual employee, leadership team, couple, family, or organization, my goal is to help create healthier environments where people feel supported, relationships grow stronger, leaders feel equipped, and organizations are better positioned to thrive.
Compassionate support for people. Stronger relationships for families. Healthier workplaces and communities.
EDUCATION & LIFELONG LEARNING
“I believe compassionate care grows stronger through lifelong learning.”
My educational journey was not traditional. After becoming pregnant at fourteen, I left school in the eighth grade. Years later, determined to change the direction of my life, I returned through night school and earned my GED. From there, I continued pursuing higher education, degrees, specialized professional training, professional licenses and certifications. I learned that the trajectory of your life can change when you make the decision to move forward with commitment, dedication, and purpose. It is not always how you start that defines you, but how you choose to finish.
Master of Social Work (MSW) Candidate
— Fort Valley State University, Expected 2027Doctoral Program in Clinical Christian Counseling — Expected 2027
Master’s Degree in Christian Counseling
Master’s Degree in Chaplaincy
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology
— Georgia State UniversityAssociate Degree in Criminal Justice
— Roxbury Community CollegeBoard-Certified Christian Counselor
Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE)
— Northside Hospital GwinnettCertified Peer Specialist
— Addictive Disease (CPS-AD)Certified Peer Specialist
— Parent (CPS-Parent)Certified Foster Care Peer Support Coach
Certified Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Training
Certified Behavioral Health Crisis Response Training
Certified Trauma-Informed Care Training
Certified Crisis Intervention & Suicide Prevention Training
EDUCATION, CREDENTIALS & PROFESSIONAL TRAINING:
Trauma-Informed Support
Childhood Sexual Abuse & Sexual Assault Recovery
Domestic Violence & Narcissistic Abuse Recovery
Addiction Recovery & Family Support
Grief, Loss & Suicide Postvention
Suicide Prevention & Crisis Support
Couples, Relationship & Blended Family Support
Parenting, Co-Parenting & Family Support
Conflict Resolution, Communication & Relationship Repair
Self-Esteem & Confidence Coaching
Behavioral Health Crisis Intervention & Resource Navigation
Workplace Wellness & Corporate Chaplaincy
Leadership Development & Executive Support
Life Coaching & Personal Development
Business & Visionary Consulting
Peer Support & Recovery-Focused Services
Community Education, Workshops & Professional Training
AREAS OF EXPERIENCE & SPECIALIZATION:
HONORARY RECOGNITION
In recognition of my humanitarian service, Christian leadership, community impact, and lifelong commitment to serving others, I have been awarded honorary doctorates in Humanitarianism and Christian Leadership.
As behavioral health and the needs of individuals, families, workplaces, and communities continue to evolve, I remain committed to lifelong learning, evidence-informed practices, leadership development, and professional growth. My goal is to continue expanding my knowledge and skills so I can serve individuals, couples, families, leaders, and organizations with compassion, integrity, and excellence.
COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP, ADVOCACY & SERVICE
NASW Georgia
— MSW Student RepresentativeNational Small Business Association (NSBA) — Leadership Council Member
Socio Economic Development Foundation of Boston Inc. (SEDFOB)
— Board of Directors, Mental Health & Life EnrichmentNAMI Georgia
— Former Board of Directors MemberNAMI
— Peer Leadership Council (PLC) AlternateAmerican Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)
— Healing Conversations Volunteer & Suicide Prevention AdvocateInternational Public Speaker & Entrepreneurship Educator
— South Africa & Philippiens.Juvenile Justice Advisory Council
— Former ChairpersonCollins Hill High School PTA
— Former President (1 Term) & Vice President (2 Terms) | Gwinnett County, GeorgiaBrave Girls Rise Up
— Founder & Youth MentorCommunity Behavioral Health Educator & Advocate
Suicide Prevention & Postvention Advocate
Behavioral Health Crisis Responder
Corporate & Marketplace Chaplain
Youth, Family & Community Advocate
Children and young people have always held a special place in my heart. I especially value opportunities to pour into youth who have experienced trauma, adversity, or difficult life circumstances. Whether through mental health support, mentoring, community programs, advocacy, or my work in the beauty industry, helping young people feel seen, supported, encouraged, and hopeful has remained deeply important to me.
I want them to know that what they have been through does not have to define who they become or where their lives can go.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
My community service, advocacy, humanitarian work, and leadership have also been honored through numerous awards and recognitions, including a Lifetime Achievement Award and honors for community activism, service, leadership, and humanitarian impact.
For me, recognition has never been the reason for serving. The greatest honor is knowing that something I have lived, learned, shared, or helped build may make the path a little easier for someone coming behind me.
MORE THAN
A PROFESSION,
IT'S MY CALLING
Long before I became a behavioral health professional, counselor, chaplain, life coach, speaker, advocate, and leader, I was a young girl searching for hope.
My own journey has included childhood trauma, foster care, abuse, addiction recovery, grief, divorce, and unexpected life challenges. There were seasons when my future felt uncertain, but compassionate people helped me believe that healing, growth, and a different future were possible.
Those experiences never became my identity, but they became part of my purpose.
Today, I have the privilege of combining lived experience with professional education, behavioral health leadership, crisis intervention, trauma-informed and evidence-informed practices, faith when desired, and compassionate support to help others discover hope beyond their circumstances.
My work has allowed me to walk alongside individuals and families during some of life’s most difficult moments, from trauma, grief, addiction recovery, relationship challenges, family conflict, and major life transitions to moments of crisis, loss, and uncertainty. I believe people deserve a safe, compassionate space where they can be heard, supported, and empowered to move forward.
Whether I am supporting a couple working to rebuild trust, helping a blended family navigate new relationships and family dynamics, encouraging a parent, mentoring a young person, helping someone strengthen their self-esteem and confidence, or supporting an individual as they rediscover their purpose, my goal remains the same: to help people heal, grow, strengthen relationships, and move forward with hope.
My approach brings together compassion, lived experience, professional education, behavioral health leadership, crisis intervention, faith when desired, and practical support. I meet people where they are without judgment and help them identify meaningful next steps toward healing, stronger relationships, personal growth, greater confidence, and overall well-being.
My calling also extends into the workplace and the world of leadership. Through workplace wellness, corporate and marketplace chaplaincy, leadership development, business consulting, visionary consulting, training, and organizational support, I help individuals, entrepreneurs, leaders, businesses, and organizations move from ideas to purposeful action.
I especially enjoy working with entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, and emerging visionaries who have an idea, dream, business, program, or initiative they are ready to bring to life. Together, we clarify the vision, identify practical next steps, strengthen leadership strategies, and develop an actionable path forward.
My passion for entrepreneurship, business development, and visionary leadership has also taken me internationally. In South Africa, I had the opportunity to speak to women about entrepreneurship, starting a business, business development, and practical steps for turning an idea into something tangible. That experience further strengthened my commitment to helping aspiring entrepreneurs and visionaries recognize the possibilities within their ideas and move from vision to action with greater confidence, structure, and purpose.
Whether someone is navigating a personal crisis, rebuilding a relationship, strengthening a family, developing confidence and self-esteem, leading an organization, starting a business, or bringing a long-held vision to life, I believe meaningful transformation becomes possible when people have compassionate support, practical guidance, and someone who believes in what is possible.
Because I know what it feels like when one person believes in you.
Helping people heal, grow, lead, build, and bring meaningful visions to life is more than the work I do, it is part of my calling.
For me, every part of this journey comes back to one purpose: helping people discover healing, hope, possibility, and a path forward.