A healthy life is a wealthy life. Everything else is built on that.

From where it began

I am a lover of learning, of adventures, and of the nature of life in all its complexity. I am creative. I am smart. And if you have spent any time around me, you know I am really funny. People have called me a role model, a go-getter, a dream chaser, someone who shows up fully and makes the people around her feel like they can too. I did not go looking for that identity. It came from the communities that raised me and the work that chose me.

I grew up in Cordesville, South Carolina, a rural community that taught me more about the world than any classroom ever could. What I watched growing up was a community full of people who loved each other fiercely, stuck together tightly, and were held back quietly, not by a lack of strength, but by a lack of knowing. A lack of resources. A lack of someone who could translate what the system was saying and help them understand what they were entitled to. I watched what happens when not knowing becomes a way of life, and how that can bind people to a version of life that is so much smaller than what they deserve.

That is what made me first-generation. Not just in my family, but in my community. I earned a Doctorate in Health Administration from MUSC, a Master of Public Health, and a Bachelor of Science in Human Services. I published peer-reviewed research. I built a branding agency. I started a consulting firm. And I did all of it with one intention: to become the representation. To be the voice of reason for the community I came from, and every community like it.