Our Founder’s Story

I am the founder, concept originator, and original planner of the Boomers Collaborative concept. I have a BA in Homebuilding, Residential Design with a Minor in Art. After essentially a 25-year hiatus from career pursuits to care for family until the death of my elderly mother in 2010, I needed a plan for my next chapter in life. 

Believing I might succeed as a technical writer in my 60s and 70s, I went back to school in 2011-12 to get an MA in Technical Communication. Sadly, I graduated with my master’s degree just when most of the technical writing jobs went to India. This is when I began to conceptualize the Boomers Collaborative model for retirement—I needed a retirement survival solution to make up for my inability to secure a permanent full-time job and believed it might be of appeal to other seniors I was meeting in local job and Baby Boomer social clubs. Many began to join me in MeetUps.

In addition to designing and preparing residential plan sets as a residential designer, I have also built homes as a residential construction manager for several builders and as an independent infill housing redevelopment contractor in several Texas jurisdictions. In the role of urban planner with the City of Houston in the mid-1980s, I participated in the development of neighborhood plans, plat review, and residential program development and administration. I also served as Departmental liaison to the Houston Housing Finance Corporation. 

As an artist, I designed a diverse array of products from a large stained-glass window for a church to dance costumes and children’s clothing. I also designed a household product for which I held a design patent. And I have additional graduate-level education in Public Administration, Urban Planning, and Business Administration in Entrepreneurship. 

My professional expertise, education, and life experience gave me the confidence to strike out on my own and begin this journey of trying to bring along a new model for a better retirement for many who would otherwise become impoverished, more isolated, and alone. And the encouragement I have received from so many along the way has helped me persevere.