Growing up in housing projects that were gentrified sparked my initial interest in the relationship between personal and communal identity. Having those same housing projects located blocks away from the city’s library, museum, and major historical sites - along with my mom’s artistic and décor flair that made our little apartment look like a magazine spread - exposed me to the fact that art, in all of its forms, can impact us profoundly. I didn’t know it then, but my subsequent search for self through living in many places, amongst many types of people and cultures, along with trying on a variety of different careers, are what led me to attain a Ph.D. in I-O psychology.