As a child born and raised in Northern California, our family home had a chain-link fence in the backyard that offered me an unobstructed view of my local elementary school playground. I remember sitting in the backyard with my mother who was gardening while I watched the local school children play basketball, foursquare, and hopscotch just beyond the chain-link fence. I often fantasized about how it would feel to stroll my wheelchair around on that smooth black top playground and play with the kids who looked to be having so much fun! Instead, I was bussed across town to a Crippled Children’s School where my learning experience consisted of simplified instruction and hours of pullouts for physical therapy. Not until the Education For All Handicapped Children Act was signed into law, did I experience freedom from educational segregation and participate in a public school setting with my peers.

Navigating the integral facets of my life including independent living, accessible housing, employment, benefits counseling, securing support staff, transportation, parenting with a disability, and working through increasing medical complexities requires strength and perseverance.  When any one of these elements’ shifts, it can feel as though I am living in a house of cards. My life success is based on knowledge, planning, the implementation of a multilayered backup plan and profound patience. (Not to mention, several triple shot lattés!)

During the height of the pandemic while locked inside my home, I enrolled in Independent Facilitator training courses to pass the time. Successfully, I completed three training programs and landed a position with a phenomenal company where I applied my newly learned skills and worked for two years as an Independent Facilitator.  

My mission is to apply the knowledge I gain from lived experience and practical independent facilitation to assist you in attaining the life you want with the support you need to accomplish your goals and live an authentic self-determined life.