We’re excited to introduce Leah Dugan, one of our new associate consultants! Learn more about her career journey, current role, and what excites her about life in this interview.

Tell us about your new role at Holistic! What do you do? Who are you working with?

I'm an Associate Consultant here at Holistic. Coming from a recruiting background, I specialize in recruiting, hiring, and interviewing efforts for our clients, but, like all of us here, I dabble in a bit of everything. 

We’re interested in learning more about your background. Can you tell us more about your career journey? 

Ok, buckle in. I started my career in photography and quickly learned that I hate trying to do art for money. I bopped around in the service industry for a long time, mostly bartending, while I tried to support my musical "career". Then I  moved to an office job at a Telehealth startup where I had roles in the customer service, business development, and analytics departments over several years. I then moved on to become a yoga teacher and started my own business which did well for a moment, but I had to switch gears due to some significant life changes. At that point, I started overseeing the back-office operations for a Michelin starred restaurant and working part-time for a small marketing company where I did their web copy, website administration, and some client account work. I then took a coding boot camp course and then moved into recruiting before making the move here to Holistic. 

Let’s switch gears. What excites you about life? What gives you hope? What keeps you up at night?

Human connection above all else. I think that's why I love music and art so much. What better way to truly connect with the life experiences and emotions of others? 

Not to sound old, but the young folks give me hope. I'm constantly blown away by the clarity in which many of the youth of today see our human predicaments. They're much more aware than the average adult of where we are and where we could go as a society, and many of them are already working for change. It's incredibly inspiring. 

The general lack of trust in data and science keeps me up at night. That's not to say that data and science are the end all be all and that there is infallibility there, nothing is infallible. But it's alarming and really dangerous for people to completely ignore facts because the facts don't agree with their 'feelings'. I've changed my mind about various things several times in my life, and I hope I always will. If you get sound information that says something different than what you have in your mind, you reassess, check the data, and if it still says you're wrong, you consider that you might have been wrong, you don't dig your heels in. It's really upsetting to me that more people aren't willing to do this. 

What's the most helpful piece of advice you've ever received, and why? 

"Be kind, but know your worth, and don't take shit from anyone." I feel like this is pretty self-explanatory. 

If you had an extra hour each day, what would you do with it?

Spend more time with my kiddo. 

Lastly, what do you do for fun? 

Going to see live music and spending chill time outside are my favorite things to do. I also love to sing and play music myself. I like to read and write. I haven't had time lately to make any art, but it's something I'm sure I'll return to at some point. I really love to hang out with my teenage kid, he's shockingly good company for a 16-year-old. And I love connecting with friends in any way, shape, or form.