What’s your historical Los Angeles and New York connection?
I am a 3rd generation New Yorker on both sides of the family.  I grew up in NJ, about 30 minutes outside the city, my 88 year old Grandma Pearl Rose still lives in the Bronx (and walks everywhere), and both my parents and both their parents are from the Bronx/Manhattan. I would come to NYC almost every weekend growing up as my dad is an avid art fan, (weekend trips to the MoMa and galleries) and my mom is an avid ballet fan , (NYC Ballet), so I grew up complaining the entire time we were forced to be cultured at the age of 7 begging to just go to FAO Schwarz.

Describe your experience in LA.
I visited LA 2 years ago, and told everyone I would move there.  My New York friends insisted I only liked it because I was there for two days, but I knew I actually felt different there, like a better version of myself than I did in NYC.  I now say New York is work with a splash of life and, LA is life with a splash of work.  As a workaholic, living in NYC adds fuel to this fire, but in LA, I am able to go to sleep early, go to yoga, and relax.  I choose to live first and work second, as opposed to New York where I feel like my life is work.

What was the biggest challenge of moving from NYC to LA?
Most of my network is in NYC.  While a few of my closest friends moved away from NYC to “grow up”, all of my family, all of my memories, pretty much my entire life is in NYC.  It’s like a worn in glove that now has holes in it and is not really covering my hand anymore and protecting it from the freezing cold winds that blow 99% of the time.  That being said, while it is a challenge to walk away from everything and everyone I know to more of an unknown situation, because my network is so strong in NYC, I don’t really feel like I am leaving.  Technology has allowed me to still work with my network in NYC while living in LA.

How can NYC and LA best engage with each other?
I say that LA is my main dish and NYC is my side dish, or LA is my husband and NYC is my “mistress.”  That being said, I think for me at least, NYC 1 week a month is just enough time to stay relevant, maintain my network but still be able to enjoy life.

Favorite NYC secret spot
Not a secret, but anyone that knows me would be able to answer this question for me.  Cafe Gitane on Prince and Mott, best watermelon juice and hearts of palm salad with extra red pepper flakes in the world.

If you were not at Catalyst Creativ, what would you be doing?
I used to be a teacher, and I really miss that. I am working on creating a platform that hopefully makes a dent in the way we see doing good as an educational tool, so probably that, but if I couldn’t do that, I would say I would probably just be a camp counselor.

From the 2462 Miles newsletter: connecting NEW YORK CITY + LOS ANGELES