Whenever I tell people I’m from New York, I can almost see them imagining the skyscrapers and steel girder bridges. So, before they even ask, I quickly set them straight; “Not New York City, but upstate NY, which is a “horse of a different color”. On my dad’s farm in rural western New York, besides horses, we had cows, pigs, cats, and dogs.  The nearest city, Buffalo, was about half an hour away. And yes, I come from a long line of die-hard Bills Mafia, passionate Buffalo Bills fans! After all the disappointment, I still struggle to watch the end of some games, but I love my team.

Growing up on a farm as the oldest of five, my siblings and I shared the chores. When we weren’t tending to the garden or the animals, we loved playing school.

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Around the age of nine I was passionate about becoming either a teacher or dance instructor.  My parents put me through an accredited dance studio, where I studied tap, jazz, and ballet for 9 years and danced competitively until I was eighteen when I became pregnant during my senior year of high school and became a mother instead. Despite this, the desire to teach never left me. Helping others has always been something I loved, and I found that working with people was just the panacea for the challenges in my life.