Inspiring stories from classmates who intentionally pivoted to pursue their passions.

Debbie Epstein Henry (Moderator): Debbie Epstein Henry is a lawyer turned entrepreneur, speaker, author, and communication coach, with expertise in careers, women, workplace dynamics, and law. She had a terrifying health scare as a 26-year-old newlywed and third year law student that informed lots of risk-taking in her career. By 1999, Debbie was an unhappy part-time lawyer and mom, trying to advance to partner and also play an integral role in her kids’ lives. She sent out an email to a handful of women struggling with the same issues. Within days, 150 lawyers responded. Soon after, Debbie left the law to become a professional speaker and grew what was then a brown bag lunch group to a national network of over 10,000 lawyers — first women, and eventually anyone who understood that the legal model was broken. With two partners, she parlayed the network to co-found Bliss Lawyers, a company that hired hundreds of lawyers to work on temporary engagements for Fortune 500 clients across the US. In February 2020, Debbie co-facilitated the successful acquisition of Bliss by its largest competitor, Axiom, the global leader in high-caliber, on-demand legal talent. For the last 25 years, she’s run DEH Consulting, Speaking, Writing and given nearly 1,000 talks; she also shares her learnings as a communication coach, inspiring leaders to communicate with confidence. Debbie has worked internationally for more than 15 years, including engagements in Paris, Madrid, Vienna, The Hague, London, and more. Hundreds of news outlets have featured her work including The New York Times, NBC Nightly News, The Wall Street Journal, and National Public Radio. Debbie is a member of the Brooklyn Law School Board of Trustees and a past President and former Board member of The Forum of Executive Women. She and her husband of 30 years live in the New York area; they have three grown sons.

Kristine Budill: Kristine Budill has eleven years of teaching experience in the areas of math, engineering, computer science and finance. She is currently Director of Holy Child’s Engineering, Architecture & Design and Leadership Institute in Finance signature programs at School of the Holy Child, an all-girls, Catholic, independent, college-preparatory school for grades 5-12 in Rye, NY. Holy Child’s signature programs allow students to make interdisciplinary connections and explore subjects not typically taught at the secondary-school level with the goal of empowering them to pursue careers where women still represent a minority. Kristine is also a board member of the Yale Science and Engineering Association and of Engineering Tomorrow, a nonprofit that seeks to create a more diverse engineering workforce to solve the engineering challenges of the future. Prior to her role as an educator, Kristine spent over ten years working at a private equity fund that invested university endowment funds and contributions from high-net-worth individuals in medical device companies. She also served as the Director of Business Development at Haemonetics Corporation, where she was responsible for analyzing, negotiating, and managing corporate investments in new technologies and businesses. Her early career included a variety of technical and managerial roles at General Electric Aircraft Engines and ITT Fluid Technology Corporation. Kristine holds an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Yale University and graduate degrees in electrical engineering and management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a participant in the Leaders for Manufacturing Program. She also completed a NY State Teacher Certification program at Manhattanville College.

Malcolm Dickinson: Malcolm Dickinson majored in German at Yale, and after a couple local jobs in New Haven, moved to New York to work in management consulting. At first this looked like a good way to get ahead, but it ended up being a series of five unsatisfying jobs at different companies. After getting married and moving to Stamford, Connecticut, he spent several years as a stay-at-home dad to two sons, who are now 13 and 15 years old. As they grew, he took a three-year course to train as a Montessori teacher and taught elementary school in New Haven and Fairfield. In 2019, after 25 years of spending weekends flight instructing, he left teaching to take a full-time job as a pilot for a regional airline. He is now a pilot at United, flying the Airbus A320 between Newark, LaGuardia, and about 40 other cities in North America.

Jim Griffin: Program and project manager. A proud survivor of five careers (from public policy to construction to community development) and major organ failure. Shameless Appalachian, Stoic, and fulfillment optimizer for family, friends, and the greater good.

Matt Lieberman: In between jobs and on the literal eve of my fortieth birthday, I decided not to pursue another Head of School position in a different city but to stay where I was and try to make money for the first time in my life. I would start an insurance business with the support and encouragement of an insurance broker I had met when we lived in New Orleans. But I told myself that it wasn't forever. It would be my sole (and soul) focus for a decade, but then I'd try something else -- writing. I wouldn't close my business or try to stop making money, but my (soul) focus would become writing; my forties would be my money decade, and my fifties would be my literary decade. I'm over halfway through my literary decade right now with two books written, at least one more on the way, and a regular email newsletter called The Lieberman Files on Substack. When I turn sixty, I'll take up a new primary pursuit which I currently intend to be acting. As for my seventies and beyond, I'm not sure yet, but I have time. I call this my Decades Plan. After the fact, I have realized that my Decades Plan has gamified a big part of my life. And as I have thought more about it, I've concluded that this model of a game can work well for any of us as we imagine and reimagine our lives and what we want to do with them. Hence, the title of my upcoming book The Game: How To Imagine, And Reimagine, Your Life.