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.

Michelle McAninch

My defining moment changed everything for me. Like many of us, it all started in 2020. I had a very sick little boy, the doctors gave him no help and just continued to send him home, completely dismissing my concerns. He just got sicker & sicker to the point that we started to lose him. After a very intense ER visit my son was diagnosed with Mono & Strep together. He eventually healed but that situation changed me forever. Leaving the hospital, I realized that no one will ever care about my children as much as I do so I’d better learn to care for them. Read more>>

Melanye Maclin

I became a dermatologist in 1999. My focus and interest was in research and development of Hair and skin supplements which I was US pioneer. Additionally, I did multimedia education on hair and skin. I started in many print publications but had goal of folks hearing and seeing me. Well, my defining moment is when I met Steve Harvey who appreciated my “Ask Dr Mac” platform in print so wanted to bring to his radio show for few years. I was heard by Chris Rock who invited me to be hair expert on his film, “Good Hair”. Soon after, rapper 50 Cent invited me to do skin segments for his www.thisis50.com. Many other amazing opportunities followed! Read more>>

Bryce McKinney

My defining moment came when I was diagnosed with cancer. Facing my mortality shattered the illusion of control I had over life and forced me to look inward. During treatment, I began a deep spiritual journey that not only sustained me but awakened a profound sense of purpose. I realized healing wasn’t just physical—it was emotional, mental, and spiritual. That experience reoriented my entire approach to my work; I no longer just “practiced”—I aligned. I became a more present, intuitive, and compassionate practitioner, grounded in something far greater than myself. Cancer didn’t break me—it broke me open. And through that, I found clarity, depth, and a calling I hadn’t known was waiting. Read more>>

Heather Jennings

Yes, there was a defining moment, and it wasn’t glamorous. I was at Costco, doing bulk shopping, when I got a call from an unfamiliar number. It was my oncologist. I didn’t even know what an oncologist was yet. That call changed everything.

I had been running my own interior design business, focusing on healthcare and wellness spaces, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. No family history, no warning. I was a single mom, a widow, and suddenly I was preparing for chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation while still managing three major design projects. Read more>>

Vickey Simmons-Hart

Yes, there was a moment that changed everything for me.

I was deep in post-graduate doctoral work, fully expecting to stay in academia. My plan was to write, teach, and pour into future clinicians from the front of a lecture hall. I was in the middle of my dissertation when I came across the concept of the Black Superwoman Schema, and it stopped me cold. Read more>>

Ridhi Gutta

My biggest defining moment came in my freshman year of high school. I was reading about various different viruses and illnesses in an effort to formulate a research idea for a project I wanted to pursue. While reading, I stumbled across a strain of Ebola termed Reston Virus. I was born in a place called Reston, Virginia, so naturally, I wondered if there was a connection between this strange virus and my birthplace. After digging deeper into the literature, I discovered that I was born in the epicenter of an Ebola outbreak. Reston virus had devastated my hometown in the 1900s. Ebola virus has been around for several decades, but the world barely blinked until the virus crossed Western borders. Read more>>

Tammy Isaac

Yes, there was a defining moment that changed everything for me: the passing of my mother in 2016. At the time, I was serving as an Associate Pastor in full-time ministry, fully immersed in the work of preaching, teaching, and leading. Her death, which happened on my 40th birthday, stopped me in my tracks. The grief was unlike anything I had ever experienced. It forced me to pause, reflect, and eventually step away from traditional ministry to tend to my own healing. Read more>>

Stacia Peters

After three decades of working behind the scenes in entertainment, my defining moment came when I realized that my unique position—having supported high-profile talent through every aspect of their personal and professional lives—had given me something invaluable: the blueprint for what was missing in elite healthcare. Read more>>

Lisa Ketcham-Hendrickson

There was a defining moment that split my life—and career—into before and after: the loss of my sons. On July 31, 2021 my oldest son, Johnathon, took his life. Eight months later his younger brother lost his life to Fentanyl.

For over 30 years, I worked in emergency and trauma nursing. I had dedicated my life to serving others in moments of crisis, trained to act quickly, stay composed, and move from one trauma to the next. The fast pace of emergency medicine became my norm—my nervous system lived in fight-or-flight. Read more>>