I began my professional career in the communications industry as marketing and public relations director for the Community Youth Gang Services Project (CYGS) in Los Angeles, California.  CYGS was a nonprofit focused on stopping gang violence.  I also spent several years as a journalist.  I wrote for newspapers in California and Massachusetts including the Los Angeles Times, Metrowest Daily News and the Worcester Telegram and Gazette.  I also wrote for and was editor of a health magazine in California.
 
In 1985, after a difficult divorce, I was a single-parent with two sons and living in low-income housing.  So I started a cleaning service with two friends to earn extra money. My friends left the company after a few years.  Eventually the cleaning service grew to a $3.5 million company with 165 employees, servicing government and corporate clients in four states.   We earned many awards for business acumen and excellence, including the1993 Small Businessperson of the Year for Massachusetts from the U.S. Small Business Administration and an Award for Excellence by the Small Business Administration (2000).  After 17 years, I sold the company.

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