Paige Tremblay

I attribute my success to my deep care for people, and my belief that clarity is kindness. When you genuinely care about the outcome for the human being on the other side of the file, you work differently. You ask questions, you explain things more clearly, and you build trust that carries through even the most complicated, stressful situations. That mindset has opened every door that mattered for me, and it's the foundation everything else is built on.

"Carry Your Own Sunshine" - I have received a lot of advice. Some of it being "toughen up", "you care too much. Stop being so sensitive", and other versions. Recently, I was speaking to a leader that I truly admire, who recently retired. She was at the top of her field in technology, and is an immigrant. She faced so many challenges, and overcame them all and still approaches people with such kindness, humility and humor. She told me that people will try to drag me down, especially as a woman, people will try to make me smaller, put me in my place - so it is important to carry my own sunshine, to be my own advocate, to decide what fights are "the right fight", and to always believe in myself.

Another important lesson I learned about a year and a half ago, not from advice, but from a course was "E+R = O". Event + reaction = outcome. Now, obviously, we know the sentiment, but it is sometimes hard to step back and remember that our reaction, which is often the only thing we can actively control, can truly change the outcome.

I would say that it takes a special type of person with a special type of heart to do any immigration work. Working in immigration really opens your eyes to the importance of systems that work properly, the importance of inclusion and diversity in innovation (there is no innovation without diversity, my friends!) It really opens your eyes to how things could be better, not only for U.S. citizens, but for everyone in the U.S. If someone is looking to work in immigration, they need to understand that this work requires deep care and emotional investment, but it is worth it because of the relationships you will form.

Challenges are opportunities! The current administration is taking every possible step to make legal immigration more difficult. While this is frustrating, it is also heartening. When a system breaks, we have the opportunity to rebuild a system that truly works. Hopefully, we can learn from this time, and build a system that works.

More directly, these challenges give companies the opportunity to build immigration programs built for compliance, scale, and retention of critical foreign national talent!

Curiosity and clarity. I am a lifelong learner. I am genuinely fascinated by so many things, and that curiosity drives everything I do professionally and personally.

But, honestly, the values that have shaped me most deeply come from my kids. Adopting and raising children has taught me more about leadership, patience, resilience, grace, and forgiveness than any professional experience ever could. I think the world significantly underestimates what motherhood does to someone's professional capacity. Mothers get it done, and we do it while functioning at a level of exhaustion, with a level of emotional intelligence and competence that is often minimized and rarely credited.

In my work, those values show up in one specific commitment: I take the time to make sure every person I work with truly understands what is happening. Immigration is complicated, high-stakes, and deeply personal. Feeling lost inside that process is difficult. Clarity is the most direct form of kindness I can offer.