Since she was a teenager, Amy has been a salesperson, and she has sold everything from radio air to healthcare services. After high school graduation and while attending Louisiana State University, Amy worked for Guaranty Broadcasting where she followed in her father’s footsteps and worked in the radio industry. She produced commercials, wrote copy, sold airtime, and managed client remotes. She left that job understanding a commonly quoted rule in sales, “If you can sell radio, you can sell anything.”

Having gotten her feet wet in sales and marketing, Amy moved to Baton Rouge and took a job marketing for a home health agency based in Lafayette, Louisiana. Regulatory changes and abuse were rampant within the industry at the time, and challenges were abundant. People with natural know-how were needed. Within five years, Amy had taught herself the various administrative and regulatory functions of a publicly-funded healthcare agency and took over the management of three of the company’s agencies. By the age of twenty-five, Amy bought her first company, a home health agency in New Orleans, Louisiana, and merged it with the other agencies increasing the size to cover most of the state. Over the next ten years, United Health Care Group, Inc. became one of the largest home health agencies in Louisiana and the first in the Gulf states to 1) mobilize a hybrid car fleet for its nurses, 2) incorporate a company-wide wellness program, and 3) implement the first electronic point-of-care documentation system. 

For nearly fifteen years, Amy managed the operations of United’s six agencies, its approx. 1000 patients and 150 employees. For ten years, she held the title of CEO and owner, and within that role, she grew the company’s revenue by four hundred percent. Through this tenure, Amy learned the ropes of several executive-level departments: Human Resources, Compliance, Information and Technology, Financials and Billing, and of course, Sales and Marketing. Understanding the regulations that define American healthcare from administration to administration is essential, so Amy also developed a knack for interpreting insurance, documentation and billing compliance that still informs her work today. Most of all, though, Amy developed a lifelong motto in her work and life: one’s mission must be honored in every action. 

After two major disasters (Hurricanes Katrina and Rita) which widely displaced United patients and employees followed by a good, old-fashioned case of burnout, Amy sold United Health Care Group to the national company, Gentiva, then pivoted to pursue her passion of sustainable furniture restoration and interior design. She purchased a sixty-year-old upholstery and restoration business, Denicola’s Furniture, from its retiring owner in 2011. For seven years, Amy and her business partner, Michael, worked to turn Denicola’s into a design and craft-focused business with sustainability at its heart. With Michael running “the back” and Amy running “the front,” sales increased substantially and Denicola’s established a reputation for creative design and stellar craftsmanship. Among Amy’s most significant projects are several film sets, a Vanity Fair photoshoot, a casino disco club, two restaurants, and a world-class arts and music center. 

During this time, Amy also owned and managed the first sustainable boutique on the Gulf Coast named Noelie Harmon. Inside the walls of Noelie Harmon, each product was labeled in one to four categories: locally made, eco-friendly, fair trade, or socially responsible. Founded in 2008 and open for ten years, it was in this capacity that Amy began to champion local artists and became involved in the local art scene of Baton Rouge. Noelie Harmon was the first store in Louisiana to sell TOMS shoes, Kleen Kanteen, and other iconic brands before any other southern store. 

In 2018, Amy and Michael decided Denicola’s could not support two owners, so Amy sold Michael the company in January of 2018 and moved on to pursue other creative work. In the spring of 2018, Amy decided to start Strother Co., a creative consulting company to assist small businesses and non-profits. Among her clients before the pandemic were the Greater Baton Rouge Arts Council where she revamped the city’s arts market, created a mobile application for a city-wide juried art show (which she co-managed), erected a holiday pop-up shop, and assisted in operational and marketing improvements. Other clients were O’Brien House (various marketing services), Red Cake Events (social media and content creation), Baton Rouge Blues Festival (social media and content creation) and Louisiana Marathon (photography).

Then, the pandemic happened. 

Amy and her husband, Dave, had been planning a move to Maine for some time, and the pandemic afforded an easy escape. While Amy is a proud Louisiana native, the weather and politics had become too much to tolerate. So, in March of 2020, Amy and Dave packed their Jeep Grand Cherokee full of hope, a family and two dogs then headed north. 

Simultaneous with her professional work, Amy has spent most of her life pursuing passionate projects on a volunteer basis, too. In her capacity as a healthcare executive, she was a committee and board member for the American Heart Association, and she served on the board of the Greater Baton Rouge Boys & Girls Club. She was also chosen as a participant of the Capital Region Chamber of Commerce Leadership Class of 2007 and was elected by her classmates to serve on the board following graduation. With several colleagues, she founded the Baton Rouge Green Crawl to help promote green transportation and sustainable business. She served on the board for the Manship Theatre, a non-profit theatre in downtown Baton Rouge, and volunteered for this world-class theatre for more than ten years. She also served as a core committee member of the Baton Rouge Blues Festival for five years where she led the committees for art vendors, the festival poster, festival merchandise, and interactive art performances. She has participated in various volunteer efforts and fundraising endeavors from art shows to music festivals to school benefits.

Her favorite project, though, was working with a recovery center called O’Brien House. After three family members sought refuge at O’Brien House, Amy took a position as a board member and spent years helping the staff and clients build a program of storytelling. In 2015, she founded an annual essay contest to help teens cope with the effects of Substance Use Disorder. The following year, she produced the first of four short documentaries to raise awareness about the growing opioid crisis and overdoses. Both of these traditions carry on today in her absence. Through this work and after discovering the power of storytelling as a healing tool, Amy gained her certifications as a Recovery Coach and Interventionist. 

Amy was one of Baton Rouge’s Outstanding Woman in Business in 2009 and won a 40 Under 40 Award in 2004. She was selected as an Outstanding Woman in Business by the American Business Women’s Association in 2008. 

In August of 2022, after working as a consultant with Harbor House Partners and George Hurvitt, Amy founded Waxwing to (again) work with small businesses and non-profits. 

“It is my hope every day when I wake up that I can use my expertise to help another small business owner get closer to their dream.”