Co-Founders
Kate Pawlowski – Founding Partner
Kate always loved to organize and perfected her de-cluttering skills on her childhood friends’ bedrooms, but it wasn’t until her early twenties that she realized she could get paid to do it. After graduating from college, she was hired by a family friend to manage the move of a five-story townhouse to another state. Kate soon realized that her direct questions about her first client’s belongings were really questions about why we keep things even if they don’t work for us. Kate’s training in psychology allowed her to understand the deep-seated reasons why people hold on to possessions even when they cause problems, and realized this might be the seed for a business idea. After booking her second job and realizing she couldn’t do it alone, she called in the person who had taught her everything she knew about organizing—and life in general—her mom, Ann. And so Done & Done Home was formed. Kate holds a BA in Psychology from The New School and is a graduate of The Nightingale-Bamford School on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Ann Lightfoot – Founding Partner
Born and raised in the Midwest, Ann is an eternal optimist with an endless interest in the human experience. After returning to New York after nine years in London, she started her own company, A Better Birth, and worked for five years as a doula in New York, alleviating expectant mothers’ fears and supporting them during pregnancy and the labor process. Her experience in shepherding clients through times of stress and great life change makes the emotional side of organizing work second nature to her. Always comforted by an organized home, Ann was thrilled when her daughter, Kate, called for help with an decluttering and inventory job. As one job followed another, their business was born. Ann works closely with all clients and her attention to their life stories and experiences with organization has lead Done & Done Home to have a nearly perfect hire rate after in-person consultations. Ann Lightfoot holds an MFA from The New School and a BA from Loyola University. She is a proud grandma to Kate’s son, James.
Office Team
Meri MacEacheron
Meri was born and raised in Westfield, NJ. After graduating from Lafayette College with a BA in English she moved to San Francisco where she met her husband, Darby. They married and settled in Oakland, CA and had two children Max and Margaux. Though her career has been in advertising, most recently for MommyPoppins.com, her passion has always been organization, interior design and real estate. She went to open houses with her mom as a young kid just for fun. In 2014, Meri and her family moved back to Westfield, NJ to be closer to family. For the move, Meri de-cluttered, packed and staged their home in Oakland, CA which helped expedite the sale and raised the value of the home. She has always enjoyed helping friends and family with organizing and offering design ideas for their remodels. She has designed and managed three bathroom renovations, an attic remodel and a bonus room remodel in her own home. The things she loves most are entertaining her family and friends, and cooking and eating yummy food!
Meg Koett
We didn’t have to search far when we were looking for someone to head up our marketing department. Meg Koett comes to us by way of family; sister to Ann and aunt to Kate, her hire was a no-brainer. We needed someone who knew us well enough to represent our brand and who better than a woman who has literally been there since day one?
Meg is a graduate of Ripon College but decided early on to work from home while raising her two children. The co-founder of Jam Custom Handbags, Meg learned how to work with clients, how to advertise a brand and how to sell products online. After a successful run of five years, Jam closed their doors and Meg was available to put her knowledge to work for Done & Done. She will be working on our social media presence and will be contributing to our website content.
Panna Ostermann
Panna was born in India and raised in the NY/NJ Metropolitan area. She is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University with BS in Business Administration. Panna started her career in the banking industry and then eventually moved to the telecommunications field. Panna worked as a successful Global Account Manager and Sales Consultant in the telecommunications industry for the majority of her career. When Panna and her husband started a family, she decided to take some time off to raise her two children. During those years, Panna also worked as part-time sales associate at Williams-Sonoma where she was able to tap into her creative & culinary side. Panna was hired to assist with the store’s visual design, work with professional chefs and manage client relationships. She experienced how visually beautiful and organized spaces made her clients feel calm and happy, so joining the Done & Done team as the Operations Manager was the perfect next step in her career!
Associates
Macky Henesey
Macky Henesey was born and raised in Seal Beach, California. She grew up playing competitive tennis, swimming, running and was a recruited field hockey player at UC Davis. When the beaches beckoned she returned to southern California to graduate with a degree in Psychology from Cal State Long Beach. She then ventured east to begin a career in public relations and advertising in Washington, DC. She met her husband Mike there and they moved shortly thereafter to New Canaan, CT where they’ve lived and raised their three children over the last 25 years. Macky has organized her home, her three kids rooms (repeatedly!), countless dorm rooms and parts of many friend’s homes. Macky has volunteered extensively and her work has spanned from the New Canaan Garden Club to the Waveny Care Center to National Charity League. Professionally she’s taken on the reorganization of a filing system in a law firm’s Westchester County office. Having organized everything from lace to lawsuits there’s not much that intimidates this one!
Katie Hammond Up until a few years ago, Katie had an entire plastic bin full of all the letters and cards she had ever received. This was one of many boxes that she repeatedly moved from home to home, but rarely opened or enjoyed. Determined to make the most of a spring cleaning, Katie dedicated hours to reading through each letter and card. Ultimately, she ended up with one ziplock bag and felt like she could breathe more easily. This inspired Katie to approach the rest of her belongings in the same way, thoughtfully downsizing and letting go. Katie has recently relocated to East Hampton, NY and is excited to be a part of the Done and Done team. Katie has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin- Madison and a Masters degree from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. Prior to her position with Done and Done, Katie worked as a counselor and advocate for survivors of domestic violence, foster care youth, incarcerated adolescents and adults, and residents of long-term care facilities through numerous non-profit organizations.
Megan DeeKatie Hammond’s older sister, Megan, is also a native New Yorker who grew up in Greenwich Village. She received her BA in History from Hampshire College but after graduation found she was more interested in food then the Cold War and enrolled in the culinary arts program at The New School. Megan worked in the food industry for 13 years. She meet her husband while working for Eli Zabar at EAT, was a chef for several NYC catering companies and had dozens of private clients as well. For the past 23 yearsMegan has lived in Prospect Heights Brooklyn with her husband Marko and their two children Gabe and Vlajko. With the birth of her second child Megan focused her attention on her family and doing her best to maintain a sense of order in their lovely but not enormous Brooklyn apartment. The first thing most people asked when they visited was “ where is all your stuff?” Megan became a master at pairing down and a favorite neighbor to families with younger children who were the beneficiaries of loads of hand me downs.
Recently Megan and her family purchased a 2,800 square foot apartment in the same building and together with her husband they transformed a hoarders nightmare into a modern masterpiece. And still visitors ask “ where is all your stuff?”
Patty Grunebaum
Patty was born and raised in Manhattan, graduated from the Calhoun School in New York City and received a BA from Hamilton College with a major in Art History and minor in French. Upon graduating from college, Patty began working at Sotheby’s Auction House splitting her time between catalog production and sales promotion and later as the Director of Advertising. After a career that took her from J. Crew to Giorgio Armani, Coach to Mark Cross, Patty moved to Bedford with her husband and three children where she worked for Papo d’Anjo. A true expert when it comes to balancing work, family and being an active participant in community life, Patty finds time for Done and Done alongside volunteering on the Parents committees of Rippowam Cisqua School in Bedford, St. George’s School in Newport, RI and Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. She is currently Vice President of the Rusticus Garden Club in Bedford.
Heather McDonnell
Heather was born and raised in Xenia, Ohio. A graduate of Vanderbilt University with a BA in Communications, she began her career in New York City at a startup media company. During her ten years there, she held various positions and ultimately became the Director of Investor Relations when the company became public. She then went on to Bear Stearns to work in Investor Relations.
Heather met her husband Mark in New York City and they reside in Glen Cove, New York. Having raised three children, Reed, Claire and Jeffrey, she is now keenly focused on her natural organizational skill set. A master of packing, organizing and minimizing comes from years of moving her three children in and out of boarding schools and colleges. She loves going to her friend’s homes; emptying closets, cupboards and even rooms to reorganize and create a less cluttered living experience. Heather is a minimalist at heart.
This past year Heather has consolidated and organized her entire collection of photos. She took it one step further and for Christmas, had her children’s grade school artwork scanned, duplicated and made into a beautiful coffee table book. She is currently transcribing and creating a book of letters sent from her grandfather to her grandmother during the First World War. Clearly Heather has a passion for order and on any given day you will find her reorganizing a closet or another drawer.
She has renovated and decorated four homes and is always excited for a new project.
Lise Reddin
Born and raised in Denmark, Lise came to the United States for a six month visit in the 1980s in order to improve her English. She met the man who would become her husband within two months of arriving and lucky for Done and Done, she stayed. After graduating from UConn with a degree in Design and Resource Management with minors in Psychology and French, she eventually settled in New Canaan where she raised her two children. After years of homemaking and extensive volunteer work (Red Cross, National Charity League, Girl Scouts and NC Garden Club) Lise’s friend, Macky Hennessy, suggested she reach out to Ann and Kate and bring her organizing talents to Done and Done. Lise did her training hours in record time and very quickly became an invaluable member of the team.
Erin Gustafson
Erin grew up with a father who labeled the shelves in the refrigerator and a mother who kept the house spotless while raising 10 happy kids. You could say that organizing is in her DNA. If you invite her to your house and you’re willing to let her look inside your cabinets, she’ll reorganize them in a New York minute. As a professional organizer, she has a gift for seeing solutions fast. She has worked with clients of all ages and stages of life—upsizing, downsizing, reorganizing homes for grace and simplicity. She’s thrilled to be on the team of Done and Done, and ready to help you reclaim your space.
Ann is thrilled to welcome Erin to the Done & Done team. Who would’ve known that a friendship that started 45 year ago at St Norbert’s in Northbrook, IL would result in professional collaboration all these years later?
Lisa GaffneyLisa likes to think of her life as a series of phases. She is thrilled that this phase brings the opportunity to be part of the Done and Done team and combine skills and wisdom accumulated from both a long career in finance and raising three sons and managing a household. While a single working mom, Lisa bought and sold several family homes, and managed moves (including packing and unpacking over 125 boxes herself for each move) and a range of renovation and design projects- and loved all of it. Lisa went to Duke University undergrad and has her MBA in finance from Wharton. She spent over 20 years working for major financial firms in NYC as a securities analyst and banker. Lisa then moved to her next career phase working in the nonprofit sector principally in strategy consulting and financial management and currently assists nonprofits as a consultant with the Support Center for Nonprofit Management and Board member of ArtStream. After many years in Montclair, NJ and a short period in the DC area, Lisa is now living in NYC with her husband and loving having access to New York without a commute.
Allison Kotin
Raised on Long Island, Allison received a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and then made her way to Manhattan. After twenty years working on Wall Street, she took time off to raise her two sons and organize their very busy lives. Now that her boys are grown and in college, Allison is bringing all those organizational skills to Done and Done.
Christyn Whitney
Christyn was born in San Antonio, TX but grew up in central Connecticut.
After completing her Math/Economics degree at Union College (NY),
where she met her husband, Christyn began her professional career in
Boston. A job relocation soon took the young couple to NYC. After more
than ten years in the investment industry Christyn made the jump to being
her family’s Chief Domestic Officer while home raising her three children.
With her kids now teenagers, her organizational and managerial skills are
truly put to the test with them attending three different schools in three
different states. She’s become a master packer/unpacker of bedrooms
and dorm rooms, and is excited to bring her skills to Done and Done.
