Hi, I’m Kristi Stangeland, founder of My ParaVita, a company that helps busy women find balance, wellness and a sense of achievement in all they do. As your retreat host, I am blessed to meet wonderful women teachers like Lisa.

Lisa is an entrepreneur, local politician, mother of two wonderful young adults, and a fierce advocate for women, young and old, to recognize their societal and economic value/importance whether they are paid or unpaid. She has lived in Stowe, VT for 15 years, owns a women’s high-end, full-service boutique called Well Heeled, a yoga studio called The Yoga Barn, and is now focused on her passion project, Five Birch Strategies for women.

In the years following her move to Vermont, Lisa lost her mother and two older sisters to cancer. As she says, she’s “walked in many shoes,” as life is unavoidably filled with challenge, suffering and hardship, as well as joy, adventure and love. But it was enduring this particular stretch of life that revealed the depth of her resilience and the belief that most of us have that resilience within us.

While she continues to evolve, learn, mourn and celebrate, she is deeply committed to helping others find their path, recognize their value and be prepared to not just weather the storm, but thrive, when life throws the curve balls that inevitably come our way.

In her prior chapters, she had a career as an Investment Banker, was a championship figure skater, earned undergraduate and MBA degrees from Harvard and last but certainly not least was the sixth of seven children and the youngest of the five girls. She grew up saying “me too” as an aspirational phrase.