What do you do for a living?
TorranceLearning designs and develops custom online training for companies and nonprofit organizations. Our training lets them reach their employees, members and volunteers with the training they need to do their work any time, any place with an internet connection.

How has Jean King's work impacted your current professional success?
Because of Jean’s work, and that of countless others, I grew up in a world where “of course” I could participate in sports, have equal access to educational opportunities, go to a great university, land a great job, start my own business. Sure, there was — and still is — discrimination. And in the areas of harassment and equal pay, representation in the “C” suite and others, there is still much ground to be covered. In my lifetime, though, discrimination has become the exception rather than the rule. In my lifetime, women have been able to move through and past the need to prove we are the same and therefore should be treated equally. Now we can embrace, even celebrate, our differences and still expect and enjoy equal treatment.

Tell us about your athletic background.
I’ve come to team sports relatively late in life. As a kid, I rode and trained horses. In high

school, I was the scorekeeper for my high school swim team — the only time I got wet was when we won (which wasn’t very often, but I kept a change of clothes on hand just in case). In college, I played a year and a half of indoor polo (the horse polo, not water polo) and a summer season of outdoor polo.

It wasn’t until my husband and I moved to Michigan that I picked up hockey. John decided that we’d moved to a hockey state, so he should play hockey. After a year of sitting in a cold rink watching him, I realized it was warmer on the ice, so I started playing almost 14 years ago. The Ann Arbor area is a hotbed of women’s hockey and adult instructional hockey — I got some great coaching and great team experiences. I played women’s travel hockey until I got pregnant with my daughter in 2001. Since she was born, the demands of parenting and running my business means travel hockey is out of the question for me — so now I play the adult (mostly men) leagues in Chelsea.

I’ve coached my daughter’s girl’s hockey team now for two years. Our practices and games are the highlights of my week.

In the last couple of years, I’ve taken up capoeira, a sport from Brazil that combines martial arts, acrobatics and music.

What difference do you think one person can make in the world?
Each of us has a huge opportunity to make a difference in the world by teaching others. I can do, help, play, inspire, advise, hire, support, whatever… I can multiply my impact by teaching others to do, help, play, inspire, advise, hire and support.

My grandmother has been my inspiration in this. She was a true lifelong learner, taking community ed courses well into her 80s. She managed to teach others almost everything she learned. For decades she and my grandfather ran a horseback riding school — she had dozens of large ponies and taught hundreds of kids to ride. She’d give lessons every Saturday, and used both weeks of her vacation every August to run day camps. Kids would spend the entire day at the little farm, taking care of the horses, the tack, the farm and taking lessons. Every year at Christmastime, former students would come back to visit — now out in the world as doctors, lawyers, parents, teachers, some of them even professional horsemen, all of them inspirations to us younger students. My grandmother shared her skills and values with so many others who then, in turn went out into the world and shared and taught themselves.

What advice do you have for women who want to achieve success in your chosen vocation?
Be confident in yourself! Don’t simply assume that the loudest voices in the room are necessarily any brighter, more experienced, or better suited for the task at hand than you are. Do your homework, pay your dues, and pay attention — and speak up. At the same time, be confident enough to admit what you don’t know (and go out and learn it!) and to surround yourself with excellent people who can help you get to the next level.