Cindy is a writer and creative thinker with a business mind and a teacher’s heart. As a self-taught website designer and entrepreneur, Cindy has first hand experience redesigning and redefining skills for career readiness. She is an entrepreneur skilled at translating complex concepts into effective communications to create a positive impact for people, profit and planet. She founded cKarma Marketing in 2004 to help small businesses and nonprofits transform and scale with strategic content, branding, website design and communications.

Cindy is a lifelong learner who cares about cultivating & modeling a growth mindset. The three C’s of creativity, communication, & collaboration are infused into her work & life. She is focused on using her skills to help prepare youth to thrive in a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive Pittsburgh.

She believes that skills such as grit, agency, creativity and collaboration are keys to thriving in the 21st century and need to be modeled and taught to all youth, regardless of race or income. Her worldview was shaped by living & working overseas from 2007-2016. Working with leading social enterprises in education & entrepreneurship across Africa was inspiring & humbling to see how marketing & communications can be a force for positive change.

Cindy is on the board of the Pittsburgh Opera and serves as the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Accessibility) liaison. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Penn State University and a Masters of Arts in International Communications and Broadcasting from Wheaton College.