Title: Owner/Massage Therapist, Revitalize Massage
Company location: Worcester
Residence: Holden
Favorite movie: “I Heart Huckabees”
Favorite book: “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
Career highlights: My multiple Best of Worcester awards are a major career highlight. Not so much because I won them, but because in 2004, when I found out that such an award existed, I made it a goal to receive that recognition. In order to do so, I had to continue to provide exceptional service but I also had to expand my network of contacts and become a campaigner, the latter two of which were way outside my comfort zone. It was a culmination of those skills that have allowed my business to grow and flourish.
Community involvement: I donate massages and time to almost any cause that crosses my desk. Most recently, I have been participating in running events for charitable causes. This included a 24-hour run to raise money for first-generation college students as well as running in the 2013 Boston Marathon, while raising over $4,700 for Wake Up Narcolepsy.
Biggest success: My biggest success has been the whole trajectory of my massage career since I moved to Massachusetts is 2003. I had been a massage therapist for seven years, but had not put much time or effort into building the business. I went back to massage as a last resort and found that I really hadn’t lost my touch, that, in fact people reacted very well to my body work.
Biggest challenge: My biggest career challenge was leaving my safe, well-paying job as a teacher and director of the massage therapy program at Salter College so I could put my full attention into my massage business. It was the summer of 2010, and the economy was showing signs of improvement, but was nowhere near where it had been a couple years earlier. My decision meant a significant cut in pay, and much less security, but it was a leap I felt I had to make for my emotional well-being.
Mentors: When I first graduated from massage school in Minneapolis in 1997, I worked part time for a woman named Efay Imani. When I got married and was moving to Atlanta for a job, Efay told me, “I know you’ll probably never work for me again, but you can’t stop doing massage. You have a gift.” That has stuck with me always.
Hidden talents: For some reason, I can still recite the entire McDonald’s menu from an early ‘90s TV commercial.
Read more
Meet Our 2013 40 Under Forty Judges
2013 40 Under Forty: Bob Waitt
2013 40 Under Forty: Lia Valentine
2013 40 Under Forty: Steven Thebodo
2013 40 Under Forty: Jessica Strunkin
2013 40 Under Forty: Michael W. Steuer Jr.
2013 40 Under Forty: William R. Simpson
2013 40 Under Forty: Liz Sheehan Castro
2013 40 Under Forty: Kate Sharry
2013 40 Under Forty: Robert R. Rucci
2013 40 Under Forty: Ben Robinson
2013 40 Under Forty: Jackson Restrepo
2013 40 Under Forty: J. Christian Rea
2013 40 Under Forty: Amanda Parker
2013 40 Under Forty: Tiffany A. Moore Simas
2013 40 Under Forty: Alexandra Montgomery
2013 40 Under Forty: Derek Mohamed
2013 40 Under Forty: Patrick J. McCarty
2013 40 Under Forty: Olga Kwasniewski
2013 40 Under Forty: Ryan M. Kittredge
2013 40 Under Forty: Heather G. Keenan
2013 40 Under Forty: Denise Kapulka
2013 40 Under Forty: Fred Kaelin
2013 Forty Under 40: Jennifer Hogan
2013 40 Under Forty: Corey F. Higgins
2013 Forty Under 40: Richard Hayward Jr.
2013 40 Under Forty: Sarah Gustafson
2013 40 Under Forty: Eric Gustafson
2013 40 Under Forty: Aldo Guerrero
2013 40 Under Forty: Thomas M. Gregory
2013 40 Under Forty: Jodie Grady
2013 40 Under Forty: Melissa A. Gleick
2013 40 Under Forty: Elisabeth Gilbride
2013 40 Under Forty: Adrien Finlay
2013 40 Under Forty: Brittany Durgin
2013 40 Under Forty: Sarah Day
