Kiersten has been involved in various service professions since she was a young child. A strong work ethic was instilled early in her life as the daughter of parents’ operating a pottery studio. The importance of personal interaction with customers was a necessity as she would help run her family’s booth at various art shows. Individual attention and a smile would often mean the difference between someone “just looking” and an actual purchase.

Kiersten received a Master’s degree in Special Education/Learning Disabilities and worked to put herself through college as a waitress at numerous restaurants. After graduation, she was employed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and then Arizona State University as both a Learning Specialist and Academic Advisor. Her responsibilities included creating progress/status reports, interviewing and staffing various tutorial programs, developing and implementing personal learning strategies for at-risk student-athletes and coaching and encouraging student-athletes on academic strategies.

In 2001, Kiersten was hired by East Valley Bible Church as an as an Administrative Assistant for the pastor in charge of the education and training programs within the church. She was responsible for scheduling and organizing approximately 60 classes per year, purchasing class materials, all teacher interaction as well as online and in-person registration. Along with general coursework, her responsibilities also included facilitating a specialized three year program for a select group of class members. This program included purchasing and organizing all class materials, contacting and interacting with the students and working throughout the year to create a final portfolio with all of their work accessible in both soft and hard copy.

Also in 2001, Kiersten met David Traina at a catered event where both were working and they gradually began to cater a variety of events and weddings together. As they began to cater weddings, Kiersten began to assist in wedding coordination and was soon coordinating weddings from the rehearsal dinner through the final cake cutting. In 2002, they married and started Nicoline Food | Catering llc.

Kiersten’s primary responsibilities included scheduling clients, bookkeeping, finances, interaction with the Arizona Department of Revenue, website startup and other primarily organizational components of the business. She also assisted David in the kitchen as his prep cook. In 2003, she began making wedding cakes as an additional service offered by Nicoline Food | Catering.

In 2005, Kiersten assisted David in opening Delux restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona for Lenny Rosenburg. She was responsible for designing and creating the paper menu, creating a recipe manual, a manual for back of the house responsibilities and assistance in setting up web and hosting services. Over the next two years, she continued to help fine tune Delux as it became a fixture in “The Best of Phoenix” awards.

In 2006, the Trainas were approached by Joe Johnston regarding Liberty Market in Gilbert, Arizona. From as early as 2004, David and Kiersten would drive by Liberty Market and talk about the enormous potential it held within its doors. They commented on their hope that whomever eventually purchased the building wouldn’t eliminate it’s potential by tearing it down or turning it into a strip mall concept. Through their initial discussions with Joe, David and Kiersten realized that their ideas and concepts for Liberty Market ran parallel with Joe’s and they agreed to work together to fully develop all that Liberty Market should be.

With Kiersten’s background in service professions, a dedication to learning both in herself and educating others, as well as her interpersonal and organizational skills, her role in Liberty Market will center around training and hiring staff, creating an environment of education for the staff as well as customers and all office components. These will include Human Resources, accounting and bookwork as well as the development of all training manuals. She will be involved in menu planning for baked goods (desserts/muffins etc.) as well as recipe development for these items. Along with David, Joe and Cindy Johnston, she will help select retail items for the retail component of Liberty Market.