“People are sometimes scared of color but it doesn’t feel risky to me. It’s a second language for me,” she said. “Being confident in your point of view is a good thing. I’m sure that confidence came from Ellis.”

Colleen, who attended Upper School at Ellis, went on to earn a double major in Economics and French from Duke University.  She built her career through persistence, vision, and a boldness that echoes through every one-of-a-kind space she creates.

I have a general memory of my sense of being there and belonging there. I just remember showing up there every day feeling comfortable, feeling excited to be with friends, feeling energized by what we were doing, and it was a good feeling. It wasn’t intimidating, and it wasn’t overwhelming. I think it was collegial, friendly, and fun. And funny! I remember laughing a lot. I have a lot of funny friends! I also remember working hard, and I definitely have certain teachers that I really remember.

To be very specific, I think I am a good writer and I learned that at Ellis. I’m careful with writing and I’m careful with words, and I definitely learned that at Ellis because we wrote so much. That’s probably the biggest life skill I learned there.

I’ve said this many times, but my best friends are from Ellis and I would not know those people or have them in my life if I wasn’t lucky enough to go to Ellis. I am forever in debt for that reason. I wouldn’t have this group of incredible people who have now been friends since the 90s. A lot has happened in 30 years, good and bad, and these are lifelong relationships that I just fully believe I would not have if I’d been somewhere else. Much of our friendship was built on humor and being ourselves. I remember a lot of laughing and hanging out, and a free-spiritedness that is okay and encouraged at Ellis.

I also remember certain teachers who took an interest in me or whose classes I loved. They’re not people that I talk to today, but they are important figures in my life and I’m grateful for them. I adored Mrs. Callomon, I loved Mrs. Thompson, Dr. Free, Dr. Greco, and Dr. Bedell. I still have a note from Mrs. Schwentker, who wrote me an incredibly nice and thoughtful note about something I had done. I was blown away by the fact that a teacher wrote it to me. She was saying how proud she was of me, and it was really touching. I think Ellis teachers saw you as people—you were not just a student. Their relationships were important.

This is my second career; my first was in retail and fashion. When I pivoted to interior design, I was able to transfer many of my skills. Both [industries] are big puzzles that you’re trying to solve with creative solutions. You're putting together beautiful things in both arenas—whether it’s clothing or furniture - they are different mediums, and there’s a puzzle to it. There’s a math side that you have to make work - I have budgets, and I have to make everything come together within a framework of money and time, while also keeping in mind what people want. You have to be able to do that and also achieve a beautiful end result that expresses creativity. I love the blend of business and creativity. It engages different parts of my brain.

I began working in interior design while still living in New York, as I was ready for a change from my corporate retail job. I attended Parsons, which offers a fantastic interior design program for second-career professionals. It was great! I've been doing this ever since, and I am obsessed with this work. It's a fascinating industry. There's always more to know and more to learn - I love that constant challenge of always getting better. I will always be obsessed with rooms and spaces and houses, and I will try to understand every detail of why they look or function the way they do, or why a space feels one way, and how it could feel another. There are endless sources of inspiration in the world. I’ll never know every fabric or wallpaper in the world; I’ll never know every artist. To find all these cool things and put them together is very creatively fulfilling for me.

I am resourceful. I know how to gather the data and analyze it. I know how to identify the players. I know how to do what you have to do to make your way, and then I do it. I think that’s an Ellis thing. I also have the confidence to know that I can figure most things out. We have problems every single day, big and small. It’s constant problem solving—that’s most of what this job is. I’m not rigid in how I figure things out - I’m scrappy, and I love being resourceful. It’s a challenge. Ellis taught me to have confidence in yourself, knowing you can work it out. I did work in big companies, but now I’m a small business owner and it’s a totally different situation. There aren’t many other people to ask - you have to figure all these things out.

It means so much to me. I don’t have that much time outside of kids and family and work—nobody does—and if I’m going to make time for something else I need to really, really care about it. I want to devote time to this. I really love the camaraderie of it - we are all there simply because we love Ellis. This group of people wants the best for the school. Ellis set me on my path and was really the foundation for it all. I owe a lot to it and I’m so lucky to have had that experience, and I want other girls to have the same kind of experience that I had - I know they do. It’s meaningful to me to ensure that it continues to thrive and remain here in Pittsburgh. I’m truly happy to be there during the school day and see the girls doing their thing. It’s so awesome.