Kenya: A Life of Intentional Motion

I’ve built a life that refuses to sit still, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Over 40 countries across four continents. Fifteen years of salsa rhythms in my bones. Twenty-five years on the yoga mat. Camera in hand, sometimes chasing the next shot. Swimming with the Andrew and Walter Young YMCA Masters team and running with the Atlanta Tri-sisters. This isn’t just wanderlust, it’s how I’m wired. Being “all over the place” is both my love language and my life’s work.

But here’s what I’ve learned: you can’t truly embrace the chaos of the world if your inner world is cluttered. So I stripped it all down using the KonMari Method™, redesigned my spaces, and transformed my personal spaces into what it should be: a sanctuary where I can actually breathe. This became my blueprint. 

Four Careers, One Thread

My professional journey reads like I couldn’t pick a lane, but the truth is, I’ve always been driving toward the same destination: transformation through service.

I started my career after graduating from Howard University with my MSW, working in Jamaica as a consultant on a reproductive health project. Two years later, I moved to Florida and worked as a Mental Health Specialist, counseling middle and high schoolers through their messiest moments. Those two experiences have been the backbone of my professional journey ever since.

Then I spent over a decade in international education at Emory, serving as Assistant Director and creating the Minority Outreach Initiative that actually moved the needle on getting minority students abroad. I advised hundreds of students, secured scholarship funding, earned Emory’s International Outreach Award, and landed a Fulbright fellowship to Korea. Opening doors is more than a metaphor; it is a practice. 

Next, I transitioned to Assistant Director of Overseas Operations at The Carter Center, supporting global security and operations for the health programs. From there, I became Emory’s inaugural Director of Global Safety and Security, building the infrastructure to keep over 3,000 people safe while they worked, studied, and researched worldwide. Crisis management, risk mitigation, and international travel health.

Now I’m Vice President of Overseas Operations at The Carter Center, managing all overseas operations for our Health and Peace Programs. Before this, I was Deputy Chief Operations Officer at The Task Force for Global Health, streamlining processes and building policies that actually work. (Fun fact: I previously worked at The Carter Center in the same department I now lead. Sometimes the best moves are full circle.)

Through it all (social work, international education, global security, operations leadership), I’ve done the same thing: lead diverse teams, build community and collaborative cultures, and bring cross-cultural competence and mindfulness into the workplace.

Beyond the Résumé

For over 25 years, I’ve been mentoring young people, my effort to pay it forward. So many have paved the path for me!  I’m passionate about health, wellness ,and financial literacy because true freedom requires healthy minds and bodies with decluttered spaces and sound money foundations. I hope to empower people to build sustainable, joyful lives that don’t crumble under financial stress.

As a mindfulness meditation facilitator, I also help people find stillness in the midst of all the moving parts in their lives.

Compassionate Badassery Life

This is the term I coined for how I move through the world: living with intentionality in peaceful environments filled with self-care and self-compassion, producing a mindful, ego-free life of joy that’s still bold, empowering, fearless, and health-driven.

My background in social work, mindfulness, and training as a KonMari consultant has enabled me to help others navigate the stagnation in their lives and to let go of what doesn’t serve them. 

Because here’s the truth: compassion and badassery aren’t opposites. They’re partners. And when you combine them? That’s when the real magic happens.

Click here to contact Kenya.

Photography by: http://www.marloherring.com