Hi, I’m Bethany! I’m a senior project manager and freelance floral designer based out of Los Angeles, California.
I dove into project management after spending nearly a decade in public education as a middle school social studies teacher. While wrangling teenagers, I honed my abilities to think on my feet and have many mental tabs open at once, as well as developed a meticulous eye for detail. These traits now prove invaluable in my role as a senior project manager.
To date, I’ve launched dozens of products. It’s exhilarating to go into a mass retailer and see products that you’ve had a hand in creating perched on the shelf. It also brings great delight to my daughter, who is very invested in my work and has many, many suggestions for our product portfolio.
On weekends I can usually be found enjoying Taco Bell (my true love language,) chasing my daughter around Disneyland, or arranging flowers in my backyard to a 90’s playlist.
Project Management
2022 – Current
Education Consulting
2021
My adventures into project management in January 2022 at a games startup. Since then I’ve worked on dozens of products, including my daughter’s favorite: the Toniebox. I’ve worked in both product and operations project management, and have also managed several large global projects. I find being a project manager deeply gratifying. I love the thrill of the fast pace, as well as the scrappy, highly collaborative, iterative process of making products that truly delight people. I thrive in chaos and am unintimidated while forging ahead on complex projects.
In 2021 I spent several months working in a consultant role as the education specialist for HitRECord’s new adult e-learning product, Class Projects. My work included close collaboration with the production and development teams to create and integrate web-based learning features, and streamline formatting to optimize users’ learning experience.
Teaching
2015 – 2021
I began teaching in Northern California after graduating with my master’s degree in education. I eventually moved to Los Angeles and spent several years teaching middle school. I acted as department chair, led textbook adoption committees, and was the master teacher for three talented teaching credential candidates. Teaching was a huge part of my identify for many years. Although it’s no longer my career, I will always be a passionate defender of education, teachers and students.
Floral Design
I discovered my love of floral design while planning my own wedding. I am self taught and have learned entirely by trial and error. After a few years, many dinner parties, several weddings, dozens of bridal/baby showers and birthday parties later, my side hustle, Florage (verb; flowers + forage) still brings me tons of joy!
In 2021 I took a Product Management class at General Assembly. For my class project I created a prototype for a new e-commerce site, Florage. Inspired by the maker economy, Florage allowed customers to discover and order from local floral designers as a bespoke alternative to existing services for online floral delivery.
