I spent my early summers in my grandmother’s tiny Ohio river town, where the highlight was always the library. I’d haul stacks of books back to her house—suspense novels with fierce female protagonists and dense psychology texts. Together, they began answering questions I couldn’t stop asking: How do we become who we are? What shapes our motivations, our struggles, our capacity to rise above what tries to break us?

The stories enveloped me; the science intrigued me. I was hooked, heart and mind.

I was especially drawn to women who summoned the courage to challenge the status quo. As a shy, sensitive girl, I loved the idea that even small voices could create waves. So I started testing my own—writing letters in second grade to board game manufacturers about sexist commercials and, by fourth grade, challenging our school board on unequal sports funding.

I began to piece together that the only way systems would shift is for  individuals to recognize and honor their own power and direct it in service of the world.

Yet I also saw how many women had internalized voices that kept them from doing exactly that—bound by systems designed to limit their potential.

In college, determined to elevate women’s stories, I became a journalism major, but soon realized I didn’t just want to report stories—I wanted to help rewrite them. I added psychology and women’s studies, worked in trauma research labs, and learned from children with differently wired brains. By graduate school, I focused on treating people with eating disorders, helping individuals and families escape the boxes that kept them suffering.

Over the next decade, I treated eating disorders across all levels of care and eventually led programs around the country. My battle to become a mother and then through motherhood further clarified my purpose, revealing both the immense pressures women face and the possibilities that open when we reclaim ourselves.

Too many women are caught in cycles of self-criticism, perfectionism, and burnout, but their voices needed more than ever.

In 2018, I founded Galia Collaborative to help women heal, grow into the identities they want to inhabit, and lead with impact.

Heal. Thrive. Lead.

Today, Galia is a vibrant community of specialists in women’s mental health, and I remain deeply proud—and endlessly curious—about how we can keep moving the needle forward.

When I’m not working or with my big blended family, you’ll find me curled up with a good book, still chasing those feisty female protagonists.