About Smartt Strategies
I created Smartt Strategies as a multi-faceted way to address public health concerns. Smartt Strategies was born out of my passion for policy and a personal discovery of astrology. Professionally, I have a background in policy and legislative analysis, having worked in government affairs and public policy in Washington DC. Now, I work with clients all over the nation to help address public health concerns at the community level.
In 2019, I began graduate school at the Fletcher School at Tufts University with the goal of becoming an international human rights lawyer. Two weeks into my graduate program, my mom died suddenly. Personally, and professionally my life changed forever. 54 and healthy, with no indication of illness, yet she died of stage-4 cancer. I was grief-stricken and angry. From her death, I started to wonder…
“What is it that causes a person to live a healthy, long life?”
I switched my studies, fashioning a make-shift public health degree, and subsequently pursuing an official public health degree at Harvard’s School of Public Health, to answer this research question.
As a policy professional, I started by researching access to health insurance, but the deeper I dove into niche policy outcomes, the broader the answers became. Indeed, the deeper I went, the more I realized that the policies shaping our environments, social capital, and access to resources are critical to a person’s longevity.
While navigating my own ability to show up professionally amid my personal grief, it hit me that politicians are people too, with grief, mental blocks and anxieties.
And perhaps, if left unaddressed, those personal experiences can influence their political decision-making. My aspiration was/is to work with politicians and candidates to help them address those mental blocks and anxieties. I wanted to help them overcome these barriers, but I struggled to find a path that didn’t require becoming a therapist or life coach—until I discovered astrology.
I like to say astrology found me.
One of the last conversations I had with my mom was asking her to give me my birth time. I developed a recreational interest in it, until one day I started to read – really read – learn, and listen. I discovered that our birth charts allow us to not only pinpoint our mental blocks and anxieties, but also provide the keys for how to address them.
Given the political gridlock, I shifted from trying to work with politicians, instead trying to help heal the world one individual at a time. I believe astrology empowers us to understand our decision-making, reclaim our autonomy, and live healthier lives. Oftentimes, we get caught in a loop or on auto-pilot, accidentally disempowering ourselves and forgetting our own self sufficiency. This can create a feeling of stuckness. For me, astrology is a tool to help us get unstuck.
I’m not here to proselytize–I am happy to work with you using other modalities than astrology. I’m also a trained social science researcher, mediator, and policy professional, and offer my expertise there as well.