Stories are incredibly powerful – their ability to teach, inspire, and create understanding is why we are so in love with storytelling. Most stories have a defining moment and so we’ve asked some of the most talented, insightful folks across a broad range of industries and markets to tell us about a defining moment in their story.

Suzanne Hagmaier

On July 7, 2007 – 7-7-7 – at the age of 40, I got married in Vegas – it was both of our 2nd marriages and between the 2 of us, we had 3 teenagers, – a daughter & two sons. Once we got married, we decided that we really wanted to have a baby together. We decided to go through in vitro and in order to do that, I needed to get a mammogram and a Pap test – to show that I was healthy. My Pap came back clean. My mammogram did not. Read more>>

Remy Gordon

I have had many defining moments in my life. I think back to the two main things in my life career wise; my private practice as a mental health therapist and my nonprofit helping serve people experiencing homelessness. I grew up always wanting to be a teacher; I knew that I wanted to work with children and help the youth so naturally, teaching seemed to be the best option. I taught for several years as an elementary school teacher and really enjoyed my time in the classroom but I felt something was missing. There was several instances in the classroom where I felt that I was not trained on how to handle them appropriately. Read more>>

Allison Kennelly

One of the defining moments of my career came when working with a new infant client that was unable to feed and maintain weight. His mouth had severe structural issues that were impeding his ability to suck and gain milk from a bottle or breast. Because he could not effectively nurse, he was undernourished and failing to gain weight. The doctors he visited either missed or ignored the structural issues and chose to focus solely on the weight gain struggle. Read more>>

Linda Gettinger-Dinner

In the Spring of 1997, I learned that a dear friend of mine lost his life to suicide. We were no longer in contact with one another at the time, so I was apprised of the tragic incident from a stranger who I had just met in a social setting. I remember feeling numb and deeply saddened… the feeling that maybe I could have done more, if I only knew the pain that he was suffering. It was shortly after learning about his struggle and ultimately his demise, Read more>>

Dr Sandy Davis

As I am sure is the case with many professionals, I have a few defining moments/experiences. My early career was spent in community mental healthcare, which is a system largely geared to provide mental healthcare to lower income members in our communities. While myself and the other social workers were incredibly invested in providing the resources our clients needed, it was constantly obvious at how the underfunding of the system was failing them, and ultimately us as clinicians. Read more>>

Lacey Pruett

I realized that the world’s definition of success, fulfillment, and health doesn’t work for me anymore, and if I was going to live my life to the fullest, I needed to create my own definition of these. After following the traditional ladder of success, after college, I realized that I wanted something more. I wasn’t fulfilled with my work, and I felt called to support others in a bigger way. I left Corporate America to start a full-time Fitness and Wellness career, and started growing even more as a person and for my life. Read more>>

Michele Neff Hernandez

On August 31, 2005 my world was turned upside down by the death of my husband, Phillip Hernandez, in a cycling accident. He was two months from his fortieth birthday, and we shared a blended family of six kids when life as I knew it ended. My defining moment arrived without notice or warning. Being thrust into widowhood at the age of thirty-five changed my perspective, my career path, and my priorities. Read more>>

Pegah Kadkhodaian

I have been on this path of facilitating healing and promoting resilience in people for a long time. As such, there have been so many defining moments in my life and career, each bringing with them significant lessons and tremendous amounts of growth. For the purpose of this article, I will share the most recent of these defining moments that reinforced my commitment to authenticity and brought me to the heartfelt realization that everything I have experienced on this path has been purposeful and made me not only more of who I know myself to be but ever more equipped to do the work I am meant to do. Read more>>