Lisa Hannah

After Her Dream Life Shattered, She Rebuilt More Than a Career. One unimaginable betrayal changed everything. What followed became a masterclass in resilience.

Jun 24, 2026

Lisa and her beautiful 3 daughters

Some people enter our lives unexpectedly. I met Lisa Hannah because of a chain of events I never could have planned.

In 2017, I was driving to a meeting when I heard an NPR story about homeless college students. A few of them were young women. I remember sitting in my car crying. I had been through so much hardship in my own life as a young woman, but being homeless, was just unimaginable to me. I knew I wanted to do something to help.

When I got home, I immediately contacted NPR to ask whether I could start a GoFundMe campaign for the students. After some internal checks with management, they agreed that I could. The response from listeners was extraordinary. Together, we raised nearly $20,000, and one generous donor even offered to pay one student’s rent for a year.

NPR later organized an in-person gathering for donors, and eventually a small volunteer community called Q-Cares emerged to support people featured in future stories.

One of the women I met there changed the trajectory of my own life. After hearing about a business idea I was looking to fund, she offered to introduce me to someone she thought I should know: Lisa Hannah.

At the time, Lisa was investing in women-led companies and consulting in the emerging cannabis industry. Over the next year, we scheduled calls every few months. Those conversations, and Lisa, would become instrumental in shaping one of the biggest pivots of my own life and career.

I remember the day like it was yesterday, but it was almost ten years ago now. I was at my health club after just finishing up a workout, and Lisa called for one of our catch-up calls. I began venting my frustration about repeatedly applying for jobs online and getting nowhere and wondering what I was going to do? I really needed to go back to work but was hitting a wall with very limited options after being a stay-at-home mom for almost 10 years and turning 50 years old. In that conversation Lisa planted an idea that truly change my life. She said, “You know you should reboot you search business.” She encouraged me to pivot my executive search practice from Wall Street professionals into cannabis—a rapidly growing industry with enormous capital pouring in and unlimited opportunities.

She gave me the confidence and courage I desperately needed to rebuild, but didn’t have just yet.

As she later profoundly said, “Borrow before you build”. I borrowed her courage before I was able to build it myself.

When I began rebuilding my business, Lisa helped me recognize something else: women leaders in the industry lacked opportunities to support and connect with one another. That insight eventually led to the creation of Women Leaders in Cannabis, which became one of the most meaningful communities I built during that chapter of my life. I spent the next few years bringing together Founders, CEO’s, Investors and Industry leaders, creating rooms and conversations that didn’t exist. In one of my final gatherings mid-COVID, I hosted a first of it’s kind roundtable of all women CEO’s in the industry. In a male dominated industry, no one had done that before. In my outrage and disbelief, I reached out to a leader in the industry who was hosting large live investor events and “told” him he needed to sponsor this gathering. And, so… he did! And then I hosted another gathering of all female board members in the industry! Again, no one had done that before. Still makes me shake my head in disbelief to this day.

This blurry photo is one of our earliest gatherings of Women Leaders in Cannabis, me in the middle and Lisa on the far right end.

As I began to get to know and work more closely with Lisa, what I didn’t fully understand then was that her hard work ethic and wisdom had been forged through unimaginable hardship and loss, and our serendipitous friendship would plant the first seed for the idea of reMADE.

This Is Lisa’s reMADE Story

Long before we met, Lisa had built a successful career in financial services. She and her husband had created what appeared to be a wonderful life together. They lived in Marin County, raised three daughters, owned multiple homes, traveled, and enjoyed the rewards of years of hard work.

Lisa was an incredibly smart and savvy businesswoman but, eventually made the conscious decision to step away from her career to become a full-time stay-at-home mother. Her husband had built a successful money management firm, and they both decided he would now solely support the family.

Then everything changed.

What emerged was almost impossible to comprehend.

Her husband had slowly and increasingly, unbeknownst to her, become addicted to drugs and alcohol and had misappropriated the funds entrusted to him.

Suddenly, Lisa found herself fighting on multiple fronts.

She had to protect her own name and prove that she had no involvement in what had happened. She had three young daughters depending on her. The life she thought she knew had vanished overnight.

Her husband descended even further into addiction and became estranged from his family. The number of responsibilities that she now had on her was just unimaginable.

Lisa was left to pick up the millions of pieces of a life that was completely shattered. She had no choice but to go back to work and create a new future for her family. And she did. Over the years, Lisa repeatedly reinvented herself professionally. Whenever one chapter ended, she created another. She found jobs. She learned new industries. She adapted. She persevered.

And somehow, through all of it, she successfully raised her three daughters and put each of them through college. What could have destroyed her instead became proof of her resilience.

Today, Lisa has built an entirely new life in Sonoma. She holds a real estate license and is a Certified Mediator specializing in helping families navigate complex property and wealth transitions.

She has also launched Educate2Execute, a passion project focused on helping women gain the confidence and knowledge to begin investing in commercial real estate through education, community, and access to experts.

In many ways, Lisa’s newest chapter reflects the woman she has become. Someone who empowers others. Someone who shares what she has learned. Someone who refuses to allow adversity to have the final word.

When people talk about starting over, they often imagine dramatic moments of transformation.

But most of the time, rebuilding doesn’t happen all at once. It happens one job at a time. One decision at a time. One difficult day at a time.

Lisa Hannah is proof that even after betrayal, loss, family humiliation, financial devastation, and years of uncertainty, it is possible to create a beautiful life again. Not the life you originally planned. But sometimes, something equally, and more meaningful because it is so hard fought for.

Which makes it all the more appreciated.

While I have written about many women’s reMADE stories, Lisa’s is definitely one of the more moving and remarkable ones to me. As I have watched her persevere through so much hardship over the last decade, created by a life event she didn’t cause, I am amazed by her ability to endure and push on, no matter what the circumstances. While I consider her my good friend, I would also say she is one the most amazing role models I have ever met.