She was born and raised in the city of Puyallup, Washington.  She grew up in the Puyallup School District where she was involved in sports through the local recreation center early on in life.    Growing up with sports and recreation, she was pleased to start volunteering as a Girls’ basketball coach at the Puyallup Recreation Center for a community service project in the ninth grade.  That is when she discovered the excitement and rewards that coaching and working with youth brought to her.  Coaching is very important to her because when she was young, she would not have had the opportunity to participate in sports without the help and support of volunteers.  She wanted to give back so she continued coaching the same team for the next six seasons.  She gradated from Puyallup High School in 2004.  After high school she attended Pacific Lutheran University where she was given the opportunity to work part time over the summer as a Program Specialist at Al Davies Branch and then moved to the South Pierce County Branch. Over the year she worked as a Program Specialist at the Shining Mountain Branch that was where she finally knew teaching and mentoring children was the right career choice for her.  After that year she was given the promotion to Site Coordinator at that same site, where she was in charge of all the programming and staff management at the site.  After two years at Shining Mountain she was ready to take on a new challenge as the Site Coordinator at South Pierce County’s largest site, Thompson Elementary.  Being a Site Coordinator was fun and challenging but she was looking more for a job that incorporated physical education and recreation.  That is when she transferred to the East Side Boys and Girls Club as their Recreation Coordinator.  In December of 2008 she graduated from Pacific Lutheran University with her degree in Bachelor of Arts in Physical Education with K-12 Teaching Certification.  After graduation she was asked to be the Program Director at the Gonyea Branch, where she currently resides.