Meet Monica, the newest addition to the Dunes Arts Foundation Board. She grew up in the suburbs of Detroit with her parents and 4 siblings. As a young adult she worked for her father’s construction company and the attention to detail the job required helped prepare her for her successful career in real estate. She has a 12 year old son, Joey, who attends Notre Dame in Michigan City. She gets him involved with her business as her father did for her. As a child, Monica loved looking at her father's plans, blueprints, and renderings. He would take Monica to building sites so she could see the various phases of construction. She was (and is) fascinated by architecture, building materials, finishing details. The entire construction process seemed like alchemy to her, and she loved witnessing the transition from drawings on paper to finished homes. In high school she went to work for her dad, becoming his office manager, and her childhood fascination with the business continued and grew. Monica and all of her siblings played in bands. She has also played guitar since she was 15 and sings. Real estate broker and property manager by day and rocker by night, she loves open mic nights. She enjoys performing solo or standing in with other bands, and is a high-energy performer with a Joplin/Etheridge-like voice. She moved to Chicago in 2002 spending a year in the hospitality industry and in 2005 began working for Coldwell-Banker in Lincoln Park. In 2009, she moved to Ogden Dunes and in November 2013 launched her own boutique real estate firm, North Star Properties. In addition to traditional Real Estate, Monica has a robust Vacation Rental business with properties from Northwest Indiana to Southwest Michigan up to Sawyer helping to promote tourism in Northwest Indiana. Prior to getting into Real Estate full time, she spent many years working in the hospitality industry at high volume places on the Northside of Chicago. Monica is full of enthusiasm for her area and community is extremely important to her. She loves to give back any way she can whether it's fundraising, volunteering or both! She helps with fundraising for her son’s school, donates unused perishables from her vacation rentals to local food pantries. She loves the arts, especially music. She is so excited to be apart of the Dunes Art Foundation and hoping her enthusiasm can bring more light and growth to such a wonderful program.