Anne de Irala's CORE STORY
When people ask me what I do for a living, I often smile and say that I “help people help people.” It’s the simplest way to describe a career built around service, support, relationships, and connection. From healthcare to higher education to the public library sector, my work has always centered on caring for others and creating access to information and opportunity. The settings have changed, but the heart of the work has not. It has been a path full of twists and turns and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Looking back, I can see that this path began long before I had a job title.
I am the second of nine children, and for most of my childhood we moved an average of every two years. Before I reached high school, I had already learned how to pack a life into boxes, say goodbye to friends, and start over in unfamiliar places. At the time, it simply felt normal. It was just what we did. But those early years quietly shaped me in lasting ways.
Moving that often teaches you how to walk into a room and find your footing. It teaches you how to read people quickly and build connection from scratch. As the second oldest in a big family, I learned responsibility early. There were always younger siblings watching, always something that needed doing, and always an awareness that how I showed up mattered. Leadership, adaptability, and resilience weren’t abstract concepts, they were daily practice.
If you had told me back then what my life would look like today, I wouldn’t have known how to imagine it. The path here wasn’t straight. It was built through transitions, questions, opportunities, and moments that required courage I didn’t always feel ready for. But in many ways, I had been preparing for it all along. Starting over, adapting, building trust, navigating change; those childhood rhythms quietly became leadership muscles I continue to strengthen in service to others.
Today, when I work with individuals and organizations navigating change, I can’t help but see possibility. What may feel like disruption often holds the seeds of growth. What looks like uncertainty can become an invitation to innovation and impact. My own journey has taught me that transitions are not just challenges to survive, they are opportunities to reimagine what’s possible.
As a Community Engagement and Access Facilitator, it is my privilege to walk alongside people in those moments. I support the changes and uncertainties that impact us all, provide information and education to uplift and inform, and help members and clients see pathways they may not yet have considered. In many ways, I am still doing what I have always done — helping people help people — just with deeper perspective and gratitude for the road that brought me here.