For most of my career, I asked myself one question: What’s next for me?

After losing my mother in 2025, that question changed. I found myself asking something different: What’s next because of me?

This shift has defined what I call the Third Chapter of a career. The first chapter is about preparing for your life’s work, the second is about doing it, and the third is about giving back to it. It’s about redirecting your energy, influence, and networks to build something that will continue to have impact long after you step back.

When I reflect on this phase of my career, I see it in everything I’ve been working toward:

Women Get On Board Inc. (WGOB), which I founded in 2015, has grown into a community of more than 850 members. What started as my personal mission to get more women on boards has become a national movement that sustains itself.

Women Funding Women Inc. (WFW), which I co-founded with Dr. Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, MSc, Honorary LL.D, ICD.D and Lara Zink, was established to address the funding gap facing women entrepreneurs.

The Deborah Rosati Women in Leadership Mentorship program Brock University institutionalized what was once personal mentorship into a formal program that will continue to foster women leaders in the Niagara region for years to come.

Each of these represents a shift from individual achievement to building pathways for others. The profound fulfillment I’ve experienced in this chapter comes from seeing others succeed through the systems I helped create.

Throughout my career, I’ve believed in “sending the elevator down” for other women. In the Third Chapter, I’ve come to understand that the truest expression of this principle is building elevators that keep running, whether or not I’m operating them.

As I work on my first book, Unlocking Power in Life’s Third Chapter, I keep returning to two questions that have guided my thinking:

What are you building that will outlast your personal leadership? What would success look like if it wasn’t about you?