I speak about the uncomfortable realities of  working life.

Candid and caring takes on work and identity, power and agency, and the decisions people face when their work no longer fits. I’m serious about the analysis, and unserious about the corporate script. 

Invite Me to Speak

I can hold a mic and a conversation.

Since 2011, I've spoken, guested, and facilitated across a range of conferences, universities, professional organizations, and podcasts. Among them: School of Visual Arts, Throughline Conference, Rosenfeld Media, Interior Designers of Canada Symposium, UXPA, IxDA, Rutgers, Wayne State, Brandeis University, Portland State, University of Memphis, the Society for Applied Anthropology, and dozens of other rooms.

I've been interviewed by Fast Company, and have appeared on podcasts including The Space InBetween, This Anthro Life, In Her Words, What Is Wrong With Hiring, and Lately I've Been Thinking About.

The threads I pull on

Career throughlines & next chapters

When a defining career chapter comes to an end, by choice or otherwise. How to find the thread connecting your past work with what comes next, especially when the path forward isn't obvious.

Layoffs, AI disruption, and the structural mess of the job market

How experienced professionals are making deliberate moves in an unstable market, and what it means to decide on your own terms when a layoff could make the decision for you first.

Pay transparency, labor, and worker power in tech

What organizing with the Tech Workers Coalition taught me about solidarity, collective organizing, and the discreet ways that employers keep workers in the dark and afraid for their jobs.

When your work and your values stop lining up

The mid-career reckoning when you can’t unsee the gap between what your employer claims to value and what it rewards, and what to do about it without setting it all on fire.

Navigating nuanced organizational culture

How to read institutions, power dynamics, and culture the way an anthropologist or labor organizer would, when trying to make sense of workplace culture.

Grief, identity, and letting go of a career you outgrew

The harder, invisible side of career change: the loss of an identity built over decades, the grief of a field that’s been gutted, and the discomfort of not yet knowing what’s next.

Interior Designers of Canada Design Symposium, 2019

Ways we can work together

Keynotes and talks for conferences and professional associations

Panel moderator or panelist

Podcast guest appearances

WORKSHOPS AND WEBINARS

Working on a story? I’m available for interviews, quotes, or background.

talks and AMAs for companies, university departments, NON-PROFITS, And community-based organizations

Invite Me to Speak

Featured by

Receipts

  • "Amy hosted a workshop at our conference about how to find your career throughline—and the responses from attendees were incredible. The feedback we received spoke to her creativity, clarity, and ability to help people think more expansively. As a collaborator, Amy was a joy to work with—engaged, proactive, and supportive."

    — Jen Dionisio, Throughline Conference

  • "I invited Amy to speak twice for my annual professional development program. Her career strategy seminars are insightful, engaging and original. She offers students an uncommon dose of reality, while also being very encouraging. As a result, graduate students come away feeling empowered in their professional lives."

    — Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria, Director of Professional Development, Brandeis University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

Booking a speaker or looking for a source?

I'd love to hear what you're working on. Send me the date, audience, topic, timeline and budget, and I'll let you know if I'm a fit. Or, head to The Goods for a sampling of conversations.

Let's Talk >

A newsletter exploring what it means when your work and who you are no longer fit, and what to do next.