Born in San Diego, CA Jan 15, 1964. I lived in San Diego until 2005 when we moved to a suburb outside of chicago. I really enjoy living in an area that has seasons and love the snow.

I have been legally blind since birth due to a congenital condition called Achromatopsia (www.achromatopsia.org). Legallly blind means that even with correction your vision is worse than 20/200 which is the biggest E on the eye chart. Due to this condition, I have reduced visual acuity 20/400-20/600, severe light sensitivity and am totally color blind. This has affected my life in many ways; for example, I have never driven, I never did sports or PE throughout my school years and I have a very difficult time recognizing people or being able to see if they are waving to me for example.

I attended San Diego State University and studied Computer Science and spent a few years working as a computer programmer. I also am a certified Montessori Primary teacher.

My journey into bodybuilding began in 1995 when I was very overweight and joined a gym for the first time. You can read all about my transformation here. In 2002, I competed in my first bodybuilding competition. I did two more that year and one in 2003. Having come from being overweight, I had a fear of getting "fat" again so I switched to figure for 2004 and 2006 thinking it was a way to continue to compete but also stay small. In 2007, my trainer, Jeremy Minihan, suggested I go back to bodybuilding and that is what I did for Jr Nationals that year. I couldn't be happier! I truly enjoy every aspect of bodybuilidng: the heavy lifting, making necessary changes to my physique, watching the changes unfold as I diet for a show and being up on stage knowing I put everything I had into it. I have met so many wonderful people doing this sport. The highlight of so far my competitive career was winning the middle weight class and the overall at the 2009 NPC Jr Nationals. I was so excited and shocked! I could not believe that was me; the once fat person who didn't want to be seen was the overall winner in a national level bodybuilding competiton. Words can't descibe the feeling.