Even with all that going on, I graduated from John Hope Continuation High School. I was considering going the military, but some legal troubles got in the way. I drifted for a while, until I met my wife who saw something in e that I didn't know was there. She encouraged me to give community college a try. After my first semester my confidence went through the roof and and I realized that I could actually do this.

From there, I was motivated to prove all the haters wrong and to make my mother proud, for once. I transferred to CSUN earnings my bachelor's degree, and eventually got my Master's in Criminal Justice from Arizona State University.

For the past ten years, I've been been an LA County employee working at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles. In this role, I have served as both a discharge planner and as an unlicensed recreational therapist, helping incarcerated individuals transition back into society and access the support serviced they need. My work has focused on rehabilitation, reintegration, and providing compassionate, individualized care within the correctional system.

My maternal grandmother was Native American.