How long have you worked for Brightspot? What brought you here?
I’ve worked at Brightspot for just over a year! I started in December 2023. I moved from a larger company to a smaller one because I was looking for an environment where I could do more creating and writing training content. Before this, I was managing a large training team, so I was looking for something smaller and local — and Brightspot was perfect!
Can you tell me more about your role as Director, Training & Development? What is a typical day like for you?
My job is all about removing obstacles that prevent employees from doing their best work. I design tools, activities and training programs to help them grow, whether they’re new hires or long-time team members looking to develop new skills.
A big part of my role is onboarding — I love welcoming new faces and creating programs that support career growth. Day to day, I meet with different teams to understand challenges and develop solutions, whether that’s a training course, hands-on exercises or interactive learning experiences. For example, with Brightspot 5.0 launching this year, I’m focused on creating resources to educate customers on new features. I also spend a lot of time building, testing and refining learning content to ensure it’s engaging and effective.
What do you enjoy most about your role? What do you find most challenging?
That’s a good question. I think what I find the most rewarding about my role is the onboarding program. I love meeting new employees and being one of the first people they connect with at Brightspot. I really like making an impact on their experience at Brightspot and making them feel at home and comfortable with their new colleagues. I’m proud of what Brightspot’s culture has to offer and to see them discover that is really amazing. They get really excited and I get excited too.
One of the biggest challenges in my role is working with many different departments at Brightspot. I have a lot of different responsibilities, from product training to sales enablement to onboarding to individual role training. It can be challenging to connect all of that together under one training strategy. Everybody needs something a little different so it’s really cool, and sometimes really hard, to think outside the box and figure out how everything fits together.
How have you grown professionally since starting at Brightspot?
Learning about software development in such depth has been a humbling experience. I am not a developer but I am really in awe of our engineers. As I’ve worked with those engineers to write our most recent training class, which is called Introduction to Brightspot Development, I can now speak their language more fluently. I have an appreciation for the depth of what they do; all the complexity and technical work that they perform. While I am not going to be coding inside of Brightspot anytime soon, I feel like I’ve really grown in understanding our tech stack and having a deeper appreciation for what our software developers do every day.
If you could pick another role to try within Brightspot for one week, which would it be and why?
That’s a hard one, Rose! I’d like to be Anne (Director of Details) for a week. She’s such a ray of sunshine! I feel like not everybody even knows all the stuff Anne and Ruth (Office Assistant) do. They’re kind of like Batman — working behind the scenes in ways most people don’t even realize — so it would be awesome to get to know how they make Brightspot so fun and welcoming every day.
Besides the people, what is your favorite part about working at Brightspot?
Definitely the mission work. It’s one of the main reasons I joined Brightspot. I just can’t say enough about how important it is to me that we help the community in different ways – and that we do it with our time. We walk the walk.
I think helping others and supporting the mission work is just so unique. Some companies might donate a few hours here and there or contribute financially, but I've never worked at a company where people are so excited to participate themselves. Few things excite me more than spending an hour at Aldrin Elementary School helping fifth graders with math or second graders with reading, which I get to do year-round through Brightspot’s mentorship program. It’s really rewarding and I think the fact that the company supports that and I get to do it with my co-workers is just incredible. It’s such a unique part about Brightspot and it’s one of my favorite things, outside of my own job, about working here.
What are your favorite activities or hobbies to do outside of the office?
I love to cook and bake! I really love to make food for people and welcome them into my home. I like to throw parties that revolve around food. Every year, I host a Galentine’s Day for my girlfriends. We have a fondue party, which is pretty fun. I also do an annual Swedish Christmas party, which is just an excuse for me to make all of my favorite Swedish foods and have everybody over to my house before the holidays.
If anybody walks past your desk, they’ll quickly know that you are a huge fan of the Washington Capitals. Who is your favorite player and why?
I’m even wearing my Capitals gear today! My favorite player, hands down, is Nicklas Backstrom. He’s an incredible athlete, but what I admire most is that he’s a true “locker room guy” — a leader who makes his teammates better and supports them on and off the ice. You may know him as Alex Ovechkin’s right-hand man, but his real strength is his quiet leadership and selflessness. In hockey — and likely other sports — a locker room guy is someone you can always count on, whether it’s after a tough loss or in a crucial moment on the ice. That level of trust and camaraderie is what I love about hockey, and it’s what makes Backstrom such an inspiring player. It’s also something I strive to embody every day, which is why he’s my favorite.
What is one thing you think people would be surprised to know about you?
One surprising fact about me? I have a cookie business! People are normally surprised when I tell them that I’ve made very intricately decorated sugar cookies since 2015 — which wow, we’re in ten years of that business now! Everyone loves a little sweetness, and I get to create special treats for important events like baby showers and weddings.
If you could plan your perfect three-course meal, what would it be?
I think I would start with my very favorite food: mozzarella sticks. That would be my appetizer. Then I would have a big bowl of pasta with some kind of creamy sauce, like Alfredo or a pesto, for my main course. Then for dessert, I would pick my favorite dessert, which is somewhat old-fashioned. I like a Pineapple Upside-Down cake. I think they’re really tasty, so maybe I’d have a slice of that for dessert with some whipped cream!
