Bio

Kristen was born in Montevideo, a small farming community in southwestern Minnesota.  After high school, she embarked on a seven college/six major tour before graduating cum laude from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, MN with her B.S. in Business Administration and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Integral Theory.  She is a member of The Loft Literary Center and WIN (Women in Networking) and is the Minneapolis Health and Happiness Writer for the website Examiner.com.  She also volunteers for the American Heart Association where she uses her story to bring awareness to the public about the importance of heart health screenings and the need for consistent standards for children’s physical education in schools.

Kristen spent 15 years in corporate America and now owns Up-Side Industries, a speaking, writing and consulting business.  She has completed a memoir entitled, “The Best Worst Thing” about her journey after the unexpected death of her husband at the age of 30 when their daughter was just 10-months-old and she is working on a series of work/life balance “guides” and a young adult novel.  She is also the President of her own work/life balance and health supplement company, Happy Hour Effect LLC.   
           
She enjoys gardening and landscaping, cooking, yoga, movies and is a voracious reader on such diverse subjects as string-theory in physics, astrology charts and self-help books as well as her standard US Weekly and InStyle mags, the latest bestsellers, chick lit and parenting books.  Kristen has traveled the world for both business and pleasure and hopes to immerse herself in the cultures of India, Italy, Tanzania and Australia sometime in the next few years.  She lives in a suburb of Minneapolis, MN with her three-year-old daughter Brooke and their six year old, 85 pound black Labrador Retriever, Cosmo (who thinks he’s a lap dog).