1) You had a 40-year career in Financial services, with your last role as a Managing Director of Citibank. You have also had a deep commitment to service. Tell us about your role as Chair of the Global Board of the Hunger Project.

I am so glad you asked me about this. I often say that The Hunger Project is one of my great loves. As Global Board Chair, my top two priorities are expanding our impact tenfold and ensuring we fulfill our vision of a world without hunger. Everything I’ve learned and witnessed working with this organization has positively impacted other aspects of my life, including what I’ve been able to do with my new business, Inspiration Unlimited.

In the early 2000s, I went on my first-ever business trip to India. I didn’t go on that trip looking for The Hunger Project, but apparently, it was looking for me. There, between skyscrapers, I witnessed a young boy about the size of my 8-year-old daughter dying of hunger. The impact on me was profound, and I decided to dedicate a significant part of my life to creating a world without hunger.

When I arrived back in New York, I started researching hunger worldwide. I found that 25,000 members of our human family quietly die every single day from hunger, eclipsing the deaths that dominate the news when natural disasters occur. And the vast majority of these hunger-related deaths are not happening in war-torn areas.

My in-depth search ultimately led me to The Hunger Project, an organization that is making a sustainable difference. By empowering women, mobilizing communities, and engaging local government, this organization enables people to be the authors of ending their own hunger.

I’ve had the privilege of visiting communities throughout the world that have been completely transformed through their partnership with The Hunger Project, including a recent trip to Mozambique. After three years partnering with The Hunger Project, villagers had learned to plant and irrigate diverse crops in neat rows. This was quite a contrast to the weed-covered bushland and random stalks of scraggly corn we had seen throughout our rough, eight-hour drive there. Empowered women had revolutionized sanitation, creating clean living compounds with safe water and efficient sanitation facilities in places where disease, infant mortality, and little to no access to healthcare or education were once the norm. Entrepreneurship was flourishing. And the stooped posture, downcast eyes, and hopeless expressions of the past were gone. Instead, I saw tall backs and squared shoulders, chins tilted up and radiant, joyous smiles.

My investment in The Hunger Project has completely altered how I perceive the world and what I know to be possible. At the heart of The Hunger Project is a mindset change: the first step to unleashing the human spirit.

2) As part of your post-career life, you trained for a big adventure, climbing to 20,000 feet at Lobuche (20,000 feet) at Everest. What motivated you to take this on in your 60’s?

Throughout my life, I have had a deep love of mountains, and that love affair has always been a tremendously spiritual experience for me. The truth is, Everest had called to me for decades. I had dreamed of doing this climb since I was in my 20s, but I always had the responsibilities of family, career, etc., that left me without the necessary bandwidth

to intensely train. So, two days after retiring from my financial services career, at age 67, I interviewed for this Everest expedition.

I found out that the expedition was made up entirely of men, and all but one of them were less than half my age. Naturally, they held some limiting beliefs about me – the only woman who was old enough to be their mother. I arrived at Kathmandu having rigorously stepped up my training to 5 hours a day for the past few months, including rising at 2:00 a.m. to train my body to perform at the point of deepest sleep. I was surprised to see that half of the six-person group wasn’t present. Our leader shared that

he’d told three of the younger men not to bother showing up, as they were not fit enough or had not adequately prepared for training. The last remaining young person, age 24, could not complete the final part of the 40-mile trek and pre-climb to Everest Base Camp. That left a 53-year-old male climber, our leader, the Sherpas, and me to make the climb.

Later, that same leader was airlifted off the mountain due to a blood clot, and my sole fellow climber and I were confronted with the choice of whether or not to continue on without him. We elected to keep going, trusting the Sherpas’ expertise. Later, we witnessed a tragedy on the mountain (a story for another day), and I learned very directly what our leader had shared with us at the start of our journey: Everest is ultimately a mind game. Proceed in the face of tragedy or not, but own your choice completely. We proceeded.

I knew Everest was an incredible opportunity to stand as a living example of the philosophy that I was ultimately going to build my business around. It was far more than a climb. It was a portal – from the known world of financial services into the uncertain terrain of entrepreneurship for social impact. Every setback, every learning curve, has paled in comparison to the clarity I’ve felt as I step toward the dream I am now living.

Everest further fueled my long-held business vision: designing a purposeful “fourth quarter” of life that inspires others of any age to dream boldly, set meaningful goals, and take action to live with joy and vitality. When people hear what I was able to accomplish, they often start to shift their perception of what is possible for themselves.

3) As a new entrepreneur, you have an exciting new venture called Inspiration Unlimited. Tell us about it and how people can learn more about what you are doing?

At the heart of Inspiration Unlimited is the five-hour “Living an Extraordinary Life in Your Fourth Quarter” Seminar, where I guide women and men aged 50 to 100 to find more purpose, connection, and joy. Participants examine beliefs that no longer serve them and reimagine what is possible in this stage of life to create their best years ahead. And then, they take action to ignite momentum.

I have held regular seminars since October 2025, and over 98% of participants have indicated they would recommend it to others. Breakthroughs are the norm, including participants who have found the courage to date following an abusive marriage, conquered a lifelong fear of swimming, reignited a passion for helping children through volunteering, pursued a career with a deeper purpose following a layoff, and celebrated a recent milestone birthday instead of hiding it, among many other victories. Participants have testified that the seminar “exceeded expectations in every single category,” calling it, “powerful, inspiring, and deeply validating,” and reporting, “it completely changed my perspective,” “it changed my life,” and “this has given me purpose to take action.” Information on Inspiration Unlimited, including upcoming seminar dates, is available on my website.