I am 40 years old and I have been building & creating things for over 30 years. When I was 10, I had a birth defect in my feet and I spent almost two years in a wheelchair. I built plastic models, then graduated to balsa wood airplanes. As I got older, I continued expanding my knowledge base & taking on more and more challenging projects. I started getting into woodworking and I'm researching blacksmithing. I may begin that journey very soon.

I used to test the limits of things I had and when they exceeded those limits, I would take them apart to see what failed. I find such joy and satisfaction in fixing & Making, and I hope I can inspire others to feel & experience that same joy and satisfaction.

I began volunteering in the fire department when I was 17. I got my firefighter certification in June 2001 and began EMT class on September 6, 2001. Obviously, the next week the world was a completely different place. I worked my way up to serve as an EMS Lieutenant for a short time. I graduated high school in 2002, went to work with my local emergency 911 center as a fire/EMS dispatcher, then trained to be a police dispatcher, was promoted and left there in June 2010. I went back to college and received my Associate of Arts degree in general studies, transferred to a 4-year university and received my Bachelor's of Science degree in Communication studies at the age of 30. I spent the next 7 years in private medical transportation communications: as a dispatcher, then as a Communications Director. I built protocols & procedures, then revolutionized the data transfer model to ensure data was not lost between the office and the ambulance.

Finally, I received certificates in and for ambulance coding & billing, Medical Compliance Officer, and OSHA 30-hour courses. I left all that to care for my dying mother. That's how this all began: being able to work from home is what allowed me to care for my mom until she passed away. Now I'm truly doing what I love: creating!