ABOUT ANITA
What I have learned
Brightstar Coach was created after my work with over 4,000 undergraduate students (as a career coach & academic advisor) at Duke University. I began noticing similar themes that arose among the students. They were the brightest young people I’ve ever met, but in the internship and career process, fear and stress became obstacles to authenticity and productivity.
In other words, many of my advisees focused so much on the end goal (that usually included securing a job at McKinsey or Goldman Sachs) – that the process became mired in anxiety and unforgiving comparisons to peers. The students who were the most at ease could be the most authentic. They could then tap into their strengths and set achievable and realistic goals for themselves.
I now realize that the best thing I can do for my advisees is to simplify the process — ask them to breathe, to slow down and find the common thread that connects their skills and experiences. I help give them perspective so they can be their very best. We then work together to develop a strategy, an action plan, and a systematic, attainable set of goals and a timeline.
ABOUT ANITA
My Background
In addition to helping people define their own career goals and individual stories, I now serve as the Director of Business Development, Executive Education at Duke University, Fuqua School of Business.
From 2012-2016, I worked as the Assistant Director of the Duke Career Center. In this role, I had the pleasure of working with around 4,000 undergraduates at Duke University and Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, helping them to craft their narratives and engage in successful job and internship searches. I was also an academic advisor to students, helping them with strategies to manage coursework and extracurricular activities.
I am a Toronto, Canada native. In 1991, I joined the JET (Japan Exchange Teaching) program, and moved to Kagawa, Japan where I taught English in the public school system and learned to speak intermediate level Japanese. I then returned home to Toronto to complete my International M.B.A at the Schulich School of Business, with a focus on Asia-Pacific marketing. As part of the M.B.A program, I completed an internship in Osaka, Japan with Duskin International. In 1996, I joined Ogilvy & Mather Advertising in Account Planning, followed by a position in Brand Management at Unilever.
In 1998, I moved to San Francisco at the height of the “dot com” era where I worked as Marketing Director for a start-up company that was developing an online survey tool. I then entered the world of Executive Education at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.
I am the mother of three daughters. I am also a Baptiste vinyasa yoga instructor, I love to read (well-written) fiction, and I am writing a children’s book series.
