Improviser and Improv Teacher, performing 20+years, teaching 10 years
Years as a Camper & Trainee: 10 years
Years on Staff: 3 years
Did you hold any positions on staff?
Daisy Counselor, Butterfly Unit Leader, Programs Director
Current Profession and Title/Years in the Role:
Improviser and Improv Teacher, performing 20+years, teaching 10 years
Can you provide a brief overview of your current job responsibilities?
After performing professionally in Chicago for 15 years, I now teach adult improv comedy classes in Raleigh at Moonlight Arts & Entertainment. I also work with various companies to provide professional development workshops utilizing improv skills, and regularly work with Harvard Law School, using improv techniques to foster communication skills.
Can you briefly explain your career path from the time you left Camp to your current job you hold now?
I graduated UNC with a theater degree and moved to Chicago to pursue a comedy career. I spent 15 years performing professionally iO Theater, traveling to perform and teach at festivals around the country. My husband and I moved our family back to NC in 2017. I approached a popular acting studio in Raleigh about adding an improv curriculum. I now teach several levels of adult improv at Moonlight Arts & Entertainment and produce and perform in regular comedy shows there. I also have developed improv curriculum that is perfect for professional development for a variety of professional fields and teach workshops all over NC and out of state as well.
What is your best career advice for members of our Camp community?
Don’t underestimate the skills you learn at camp as just fun and games. The ability to connect quickly with a nervous camper or parent is the same skill it takes to network or develop morale with colleagues. The ability to plan a skit or activity at a moments notice are the skills to think on your feet and problem solve.
What do you believe have been some of your greatest personal and professional accomplishments? Is there a goal toward which you are currently working?
I spent over a decade performing for prime time, sold out crowds in a satirical news show that got to tackle some of the most pivotal events of the time (which means, yes, I can do a great Sarah Palin). I am also proud that I was approached to design curriculum to teach at Harvard Law School, to aid them in focusing on interpersonal communication after a long time of remote work post pandemic. And I continue to be excited to bring more performance opportunities to people here in Raleigh.
What is a lesson or skill that you have taken from Camp and used in your personal or professional life?
I pride myself on being highly adaptable. When circumstances change and you have to quickly pivot, I am unfazed. Countless times in my role as Programs Director my plans had to change due to weather or staff availability. And if I can rethink an activity for several hundred people with short notice and implement a new plan all on my own, I can readjust to most anything any work environment throws at me.
How do the values or skills you learned at Camp show up in your everyday work and/or personal life?
At camp I learned to read people quickly. Who feels homesick, or left out, or overstimulated. I learned how to approach those who needed support or comfort or a distraction and how to engage them in the camp experience. The ability to read people and quickly connect with them is something that has served me well both professionally and personally.
Is there a person or a situation that had a huge influence on you while you were at Camp? How and why did they/it impact you?
My last year as a camper in the Hilton I got very close with my counselor, Mandy Walters. At the end of the summer she gave me a quote book she had made for me and it had a letter in the front where she told me I would be an incredible counselor. I knew I wanted to make my campers feel as seen and special as she made me feel.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Wear sunscreen when you are lifeguarding on the dock!! And also to always make the effort to tell people what they mean to you and to always put the effort in to stay in touch with people who come in and out of your life.
What three words best describe you?
Loyal, confident, curious.
What is your favorite camp memory?
When I was a camper and my mom would come to pick me up I would run away and hide and tell her I had “just one more person to say bye to”. And now my kids do that to me on pick-up day. I am so grateful they also find camp to be the place they never want to leave. It is the place that taught me to be proud of who I am and now my kids get that too.
