Hi! I'm Nizhônłií. 

I’m a writer by heart, so I’m going to do something different with my bio and just tell you a short story about the basics of me.

My name is Nizhonłií. I grew up in Southern California where I found my way to college through an athletic scholarship. After four years of participating in a Division I Track and Field program, I graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelor’s of Science in English and a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps.

I spent the next eight years in an immersive leadership environment serving as an officer of Marines and earning a second degree, a Master’s of Arts in Strategic Communications. During this time, I deployed twice and served one tour while stationed overseas, while holding a wide range of leadership billets that allowed me to lead small teams, individuals, and a company of Marines and Sailors.

In 2018, tired of sitting on the sidelines and settling for service as ‘doing enough’, I founded a Leadership Development Workshop called Spark: The Pop Up. Spark is targeted towards empowering women to step into their full potential as leaders in a still very male dominated world. The importance of leadership development as well as championing the real-time capability and success of strong women became and continues to show itself as a underrepresented but highly needed area of focus.

After departing my overseas tour that same year, synchronicity struck, and I was selected from a panel of applicants open to the entire Marine Corps to return to the Naval Academy to teach Leadership.

These experiences as a leader of Marines gave me multiple opportunities to see great leadership in action while also providing just as many opportunities to see the opposite. What I found from my observations was a deep desire to teach, coach, and mentor those around me to seek leadership development and foster a desire to continuously grow for the betterment of themselves, and their people. My mission is to inspire, educate, and develop leadership skills to help people reach their full leadership potential.