Today we’d like to introduce you to Chrisoulla (Chrissie) Rakowski.
Hi Chrisoulla, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I quickly left home a couple of months after turning 18 and graduating to put myself through college, working three jobs as a tutor, pharmacy technician, and lab technician. I originally had gone to school to become a doctor, but after some soul searching regarding my life’s purpose, and watching the BP oil rig exploded in the gulf, I got my bachelor’s degree in environmental science, and got my master’s degree in Oceanography at Florida State, specializing in microbiology, and was one of the scientists who worked on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Being out on a military-style research vessel with no sight of land for weeks or months at a time is both a terrifying and exciting experience unlike anything else. It was a pretty crazy time in my life, but in the end, hard work and perseverance paid off. I had both my degrees, and I had my environmental research published in Frontiers, which I am super proud of.
Now, I was ready to start my career part of life. When I entered the workforce as a new graduate, America was still in the recovery phase of the great recession and sadly, as a millennial, I was getting beat out left and right for associate/entry-level jobs by people who had more years of experience than I had in being alive. I finally got a job as a chemist and regulator at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, then was promoted to AQS Coordinator in the air quality section. By this point, I was responsible for validating millions of air quality data points from air monitoring stations all over the state, reporting them to the EPA, and auditing all the air quality labs in Florida’s major counties.
After that, I then moved into private where I was a regulatory specialist and consultant. It was from the AQS job and the regulatory specialist job I found my passion for compliance, auditing, quality assurance, and consulting.
In the private sector, I got my hands dirty doing field work and inspections all over the country, I built our company’s health and safety program from the ground up, I knew the minute differences between each state’s regulations regarding environmental compliance, I did submissions and variances to regulatory agencies, building relationships with regulators, and was guiding/directing our company’s compliance operations in each state as well as doing consulting with big name companies on regulatory changes including Walmart, Circle K, Hertz, and several others who work in Utah and across the country. I worked in software as well, doing software testing, and making sure the software operated in line with applicable environmental laws and regulations.
One proud moment of mine was when a cross drop happened at a company’s gas station, meaning they dropped one fuel type into a tank that was designated for another fuel type. In this case, it was a kerosene/diesel cross-drop. My scientific background of knowing molecular similarities of the two and industry knowledge allowed me to resolve that cross-drop for a mere $50, which, in many cases, can run into the $100,000 range, and no damage was done to any consumer vehicles either. I led a project designing a giant regulatory library of all state’s regulations, explaining differences between state/federal underground storage tank regulations for our customers, and then started designing compliance training, with one of the classes I designed being approved and is currently in use by the California Air Resource Board (CARB).
During this time, I tried to immigrate to Canada as well through their Express Entry skilled immigrant program for better opportunities. Even though I was accepted into the Express Entry pool, immigration ultimately denied me my PR card (the Canadian equivalent of a green card), with the immigration officer using my student loan debt as a reason for not allowing me to come to Canada. I was feeling pretty demoralized at that point. I was also applying for environmental and medical regulatory specialist jobs in Canada and elsewhere, because I was looking to branch out of the environmental sector, but realized that unless I had the medical regulatory education and background, nowhere will hire me. That’s when I decided I would try my luck out west. I applied to Arizona State University’s Regulatory Science master’s program and was accepted, and was offered a job with much better pay at the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ).
It was at the State of Arizona where I got to see the Toyota Production System that I was a big fan of, otherwise known as lean management style, in full swing in a company, and a government agency no less. Everything is tracked with metrics. Decisions are data-driven. We can identify and isolate trends in compliance and identify issues very early on, and management is ready to provide support, not punish, when metrics slip, inefficiencies in processes are identified, or issues (andons) are identified. It’s a system that respects the autonomy and expertise of individual workers, empowers employees to come up with solutions to fix issues, and fosters a culture of autonomy, respect for employees, and continuous improvement. There’s a reason why that agency wins awards as it does, and it’s something I knew I wanted to implement in my work ethic and future company as well.
I worked as a compliance officer with the state full-time and was in graduate school again, taking no semesters off. At ASU, I specialized in pharmaceutical and medical device regulatory affairs, with doing new drug applications and medical device application submissions to the FDA, Health Canada, EU, Japan, and China. I am currently researching safety profiles and regulatory risk management of delta-8 THC products that stand largely unregulated through a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill. I graduated with a 4.0 GPA and was invited to give the speech at graduation, which I still can’t believe sometimes actually happened, or a lot of the things I achieved during that time.
The culture of the West/southwest is what made me feel like I could accomplish my dreams or maybe even start a company of my own. For extra accountability for myself, I announced in my graduation speech that I’d be starting my own compliance company, and now that it was on TV, and said in front of hundreds of people, I couldn’t chicken out. Shortly after that, I was offered a job as a regulatory officer and scientist for a cannabis laboratory and began to figure out what all I needed to do to start my own company, even eventually landing my first client. Things were slowly but surely on the up and up and I was achieving everything I wanted….. until things came crashing down.
So how did I end up in Utah? Firstly, I lost Uncle Eric, a member of my “chosen” family, to cancer. My friend and mentor Will, died as well, one of my friends betrayed me and turned out to be not a great person. Then, and worst of all, the person I thought I’d spend forever with, left, and a few days after that, I was laid off from my cannabis job after a series of events threatened the financial stability of the company. Even though layoffs aren’t anyone’s fault, it still was a blow to my well-being, and the one-two punch of losing someone important to you plus losing your livelihood and main source of income was just too much for me.
My mentor and former employer, Jason Wiles (7G Environmental), often comes to Utah to relax and recharge. It’s one of his favorite states to be in and do business in. He loves to just pack up his Airstream and get lost out here, especially with the stress of managing a company. I decided that I can’t just sit and mope, and chose to use this time to reflect on things, and to put a lot of focus into my company and what I was going to do next to get my life back on track, so I took a page out of his book. I got a sprinter van, packed my things, teamed up with my friend Frank, and left to go live the van life to heal and ground myself after a lot of things went from stability to chaos, and what a journey it has been.
Utah is beautiful. From the moment you drive in from Page, beautiful wildflowers on the side of the road, to the striped rock formations of Grand Escalante, the red rock of Kanab, the pillars in Monument Valley, and the unparalleled beauty of Zion. I have been living in what feels like a dream lately in Utah while I travel around and work on my company and mental health. The freedom of working a few hours a day at my company, and then leaving the rest of the day to go hiking without being trapped for 8 hours a day is addictive, and I’ve become hooked.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely not. I think a lot of people who work hard to make something of themselves never have it easy.
Living as a first-generation American in the southern US comes with its own set of cultural challenges. Namely in my case, it was sexism. There’s the whole, “you’re meant to be seen, not heard,” mentality, being told that women don’t go into C suite or start companies, women don’t go into STEM, etc. Dealing with workplace sexism and harassment as well throughout nearly every job in my professional career has been a sobering experience as well. When I moved out west, it was a huge culture shock compared to the Southeast. The upper management that interviewed me at the state was all female, I’ve seen way more women business owners and entrepreneurs, more women in C-suite, I’ve seen women have equal pay and more opportunities. Even the way I’ve had my male coworkers treat me out West has been vastly different compared to the Southeast.
In addition, being Greek/Middle Eastern, there are barriers in my family and culture for women, and a lot of inter-generational trauma, lack of boundaries, and cultural BS that compounds with the US cultural issues as well. It wasn’t seen as important for women to go to college, and I got poked at too about the two kids my relatives “pre-ordered” from me. I just refused to play any part in it, left home, and haven’t looked back.
My parents gambled my college fund on the stock market, which subsequently collapsed in 2008, and that is why I put myself through school because if I didn’t, there was no college for me at that point. That financial rug being pulled out from under me also led me to move in with an ex-boyfriend during college against my better judgment because of finances, which then became a fight for my life to escape domestic violence. My parents also had a nasty divorce while I was in college and I left Florida State for a couple of semesters to mentally recoup after all that. I finished my bachelor’s degree in five years versus the usual four. Being late is better than never, even though my family was pretty furious and had much to say about me not finishing like everyone else even despite everything. I learned early on that I don’t need to give people justifications for why I do things for my peace and well-being. Even to this day, I’m the only woman in my family to have a university degree, and graduate degree at that.
Interestingly enough, after all the recent turmoil, now that it’s just been myself and the dog, it’s been calmer. I’ve been grieving and healing from things. The real challenges with the business right now are getting it all set up, figuring out what needs to be done next, having it working like a well-oiled machine, and making sure I’m handling all that while putting out the best work possible. While I’m still looking for a “day job”, the layoff has been able to help me focus on getting my company off the ground. My website will be up soon, and I’m still working on branding. I’m figuring this out pretty much on my own, with occasional quips from my two mentors and ChatGPT. It’s been a marathon. I will put something together, wake up the next morning, think it could be better, and redo it. I sometimes have to fight my imposter syndrome that I have thanks to school and my family, but so far it’s been good.
I don’t regret the things I’ve been through though. They helped shape who I am. I’d be lying though if I said I wasn’t tired. I get tired of having to justify my existence and why I deserve to be here. But I’ve come to learn what I want in my life, what I’ll tolerate and not tolerate, and what I want to build for the future. I will have a loving family one day of my own that will grow up knowing their parents never blew their college funds, nor will they know the generational trauma or bad parts of my culture, but the loving and supportive parts of it. For my company, any employees I may have in the future will have a living wage to support their interests and lives and will have a supportive space they feel safe and respected, and free to take risks. It’s because I’ve had to work so hard for these things that I’ll make sure those who come later on will have these things be the status quo for them.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
As a general overview, my business specializes in compliance consulting. My expertise is ensuring businesses follow applicable rules and regulations for their industries, helping provide assistance for complex regulatory issues or applications, conducting audits, utilizing lean management principles to improve compliance and business processes, and liaison with state or federal agencies on their behalf when things happen.
The goal is to help companies go from compliance being a reactive thing to something proactive and effortlessly incorporated into their processes. Sometimes businesses will hire lawyers for this, but lawyers are very cost-prohibitive and can also be overkill. Regulatory specialists/scientists can even write legal demand letters, and contracts, write regulatory submissions and licenses, and negotiate fines, among other things, which then a lawyer can review, and it’s much cheaper for a lawyer to review a contract than a regulatory specialist wrote than for them or their paralegal to write it at the law office rate and have peer review.
In terms of specific services, we can liaison to resolve violations with the state or federal government, conduct auditing and inspections, help consult on regulatory changes, help with licensing, permitting, or product approval, write standard operating procedures (SOPs), help write policies or develop programs for your business or any that is required by regulations, project management, contract writing, and many more. But each compliance need is unique to the industry and situation. My best advice is to come tell us about your compliance issue, and we will work to come up with a solution for you.
While I am bound by an NDA, so I can’t list specific companies I work with, what I can say is currently I am acting as a liaison with the state for my client to resolve a food safety inspection with requirements for pasteurization. While I work to resolve violations, we’re also working on expanding his business in a compliant way as my client wants to open other cafes around the state, so now this has grown beyond a health department inspection into now working on licensing with the Department of Agriculture and potentially the USDA and we are working to have him satisfy all requirements. In addition to food safety, I work in the environmental sector, cannabis (if it’s legal in that state), health and safety (OSHA), and supply chain. I also will be working with one of my mentors to offer HIPAA compliance services, as they specialize in that. My client also owns a couple of other companies that he has asked for me to help with now based on my work, and I will have another client in the cannabis sector on-boarded soon as well.
Since living out west, I’ve seen firsthand many of the hardships indigenous cultures face. Two specific examples include the lack of running water in the Navajo Nation, and the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls (MMIWG). There has been fundraising done towards both those causes and eventually once revenue increases, I hope to be a continuous sponsor of those causes in addition to continued service to environmental conservation initiatives. I also am looking to implement discounted services for indigenous-owned and operated businesses and to utilize more women and indigenous vendors and sub-contractors. Currently, for any photography and social media services a client may need, I subcontract Manuel McCabe, who owns Content Media and is also a member of the Navajo Nation.
Eventually, my business partner and I plan on designing a software-as-a-service (SaaS) app to help run day-to-day compliance operations for companies. This will include a training platform, inspection/auditing, and other compliance tracking tools.
There’s more that I don’t want to say yet, but ultimately, it will take much of the guesswork out of compliance for businesses, including when regulations change, which will be especially helpful for multi-state operations. Eventually, this will be the main service with human consulting being on-demand as clients request it for an additional fee. Both our name and logo, the kitsune, or nine-tailed fox, give a nod to Japanese culture and their ideals of continuous improvement, and as kitsune become more powerful, they gain more tails. We plan on having that be the premise of our software: the more modules used by the client, the more powerful the software will be.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Springdale is the home of Zion and towering mountains. What isn’t there to love? It’s got this rugged outdoorsy vibe, and quaint small-town feel, while also still being a tourist destination. It’s a breathtaking feeling to go get coffee in the morning at FeelLove Coffee near Zion and watch the sunrise in the mountains.
What’s also nice is just the ability to walk around. The sidewalks make it easy to walk in and out of the park or to local businesses. The food at Thai Sapa was delicious too and it’s such a great dinner to have after hiking all day in the park. Few places evoke literal tears from me for their beauty. Sedona is one, and Springdale/Zion is another. The scenery is overwhelming and the locals have been great too. Also a shout-out to East Zion Adventures for their hospitality and for helping us get to Observation Point because we were stuck for hours in traffic and missed two shuttle reservations.
The only thing that has become cumbersome, and at times a blessing, is when I lose cell or internet service. But that depends on what I’m doing at that moment haha.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kaizen-compliance.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaizen.compliance/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crakowski/
