I was born and raised here in Casa Grande, graduating from Union in 1998. After high school, I headed south to Tucson and the University of Arizona, studying ecology and sociology. My sophomore year, I embarked on a journey that transformed my life. I went to Australia to study rainforest reforestation in a remote field station in the Atherton Tablelands of Queensland. After our time studying was over, I stayed in Australia to travel around for three months. It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with traveling and that became one of the guiding focus of my life when I returned home.

The following summer, I moved to the Colorado Rockies and became a whitewater rafting guide. Rafting became the other main guiding focus of my life.

After graduating from UofA, I spent the next 15 years splitting my time between working in various countries around the world as whitewater rafting guide and scuba diving instructor, traveling, and working as a substitute teacher back in Casa Grande. I spent ten years in Patagoina, Chile, managing an adventure travel lodge and three years managing a white water rafting company on the banks of the White Nile River in Uganda. In total, I have been to 25 countries and my two most recent adventures include guiding a rafting and hiking expedition in the Alaskan Artic and traveling in Colombia.