From military service to single motherhood
I was born in Brevard County, Florida in 1992, the middle child of five, two older brothers, two younger sisters. I attended a small private Christian school until 2004, the year Hurricane Jeanne tore through our lives and destroyed our home. Overnight, everything we knew was gone.
Like so many families after a storm, we picked up what we could and started over. We moved to Titusville, where I attended Astronaut High School for my freshman year, then to Rockledge, where I spent my sophomore year. By then, moving had become familiar, new schools, new faces, new versions of myself learning how to adapt.
When my dad was offered a job in Montana, we relocated again, settling in Bernice. I finished my last two years at Jefferson High School, graduating in 2010 at just 17 years old. Montana shaped me in ways I didn’t yet understand, teaching me independence, grit, and how to stand steady even when life keeps shifting beneath your feet.
After graduation, I joined the United States Navy. Boot camp took me to Illinois, A-school to Mississippi, and eventually my first duty station in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was there that I met my husband, Todd. Our daughter Danielle was born in 2012, and our son James followed in 2014.
I chose not to reenlist at the end of my contract and was honorably discharged in 2015, ready to start the next chapter of my life. But life had other plans.
In April of 2016, Todd lost his battle with depression and alcohol abuse and took his own life. In a single moment, my world collapsed. I became a widow and a single mother of two young children at the age of 24, no job, and no idea of how I was supposed to survive, let alone move forward.
But I did.
I moved back to Florida for several months, doing whatever I had to do to get back on my feet. I leaned on resilience when I had nothing else to lean on. Eventually, I returned to Montana and lived in Helena for about a year, trying to rebuild a sense of stability for my kids and for myself. Later, I made the difficult decision to relocate our family back to Florida once more, again choosing what felt right for my children, even when it meant starting over yet again.
Building a future
Living in Florida, I struggled to find my purpose. I loved being a mother, but I knew deep down I was more than just surviving day to day. I was searching for who I was beyond the roles I carried, beyond grief, beyond responsibility, beyond what life had taken from me.
That’s when I discovered my passion for animal care. I started working as a veterinary assistant, not realizing at the time how much that path would heal me. Nearly a decade later, I had worked my way up to Veterinary Technician, then ICU Technician at an emergency hospital. Eventually, I reached a milestone I never thought I’d achieve: Lead Veterinary Technician at a brand-new hospital, where I helped open the doors and build something from the ground up. For the first time in a long time, I felt proud, not just of what I survived, but of what I had built.
As I continued to find myself, I enrolled my kids and myself in a Jeet Kune Do based martial arts school. What started as a way to build confidence and discipline became something much deeper. My children earned their Junior Black Belts, and I earned my Black Belt as well, then pushed myself even further to achieve my First Degree. Martial arts taught me balance, resilience, and self-trust. It reminded me that strength isn’t just physical, it’s showing up, even when you’re afraid.
It was there, in 2022, that I met my now-husband, Shane. We started as friends. By that point, I had spent eight years single, focused entirely on raising my children and rebuilding myself. I wasn’t looking for love, but I found my best friend. From friendship grew trust, and from trust grew a love rooted in respect, laughter, and shared values. We began building our life together.
In February of 2025, we welcomed our third child, Benjamin.
Priorities for a better America
My story isn’t one of a straight path or easy wins. It’s a story of movement, loss, service, love, and rebuilding. It’s the story of someone who has been knocked down by life more than once, and chose, every single time, to stand back up. Everything I am today was forged in those moments: the storms, the relocations, the service, the grief, and the quiet determination to keep going, for my children, and for myself.
My journey has taught me that purpose isn’t something you stumble into, it’s something you build, piece by piece, through hardship, discipline, service, and love.
I am a woman, a mother, a veteran, a veterinary technician, a photographer, a martial artist, a partner, but most of all, I am someone who never gave up on becoming more.
As a presidential candidate, I am committed to fighting for a nation where every individual can thrive. My core beliefs and top priorities are deeply rooted in my lived experiences: advocating for genuine equality for all, ensuring government transparency so the people are truly represented. The people deserve to be heard by someone who genuinely wants to listen.