It was my dad, mom, two sisters and all our animals growing up. My parents made sure we knew we had a place in this world, to make our voices heard, and to be proud and authentically ourselves every step of the way. Both my sisters are absolute forces of nature who I deeply admire and look up to. I truly don’t know where I’d be without them.

My favorite person in the world is my daughter, LynnLee Marie. We love traveling together—so far, we’ve explored three countries (Japan, Taiwan, and China) and 18 different states. Fun fact: I had her in Japan, and we didn’t move to the States until about a year later. She’s my little island baby.

I absolutely love the game of soccer. I played for over 25 years and love coaching my daughter. I started a non-profit when I was younger called Run for Love. I collected old soccer cleats and gave them to children who needed them. But that quickly evolved and soon I was holding soccer tournaments and connecting with Galaxy players to come do signings for my community.  We were collaborating with other soccer organizations to amplify our mission and reach more kids, and then… BOOM!  We went INTERNATIONAL donating soccer equipment to kids in 8 different countries (Spain, Sierra Leone, Guatemala, Peru, Zimbabwe, Nicaragua, Nigeria and the United States)!

This may sound cliché, but I am very proud to be a mom and my daughter, by far, is my biggest accomplishment. She is my miracle baby that I prayed for. Life is funny how it evolves, but she and I will always have each other. She and I have a saying, “where I go, you go!” She is the most funny, sassy, resilient kid I know and she makes everything so much better. Last year was one of the most challenging times as her mom, because it hurt to see her so sick so quick. But, she battled everyday, made her nurses and doctors laugh, she praised God throughout her battle and prayed for other kids. She teaches me everyday how to be a better person and I just adore her.

I have to admit, you can catch me and my daughter singing the Hamilton soundtrack morning, night, road trips, and any time we get a chance really. We will even take an extra lap around the block to finish our duet if we are driving. We started watching it a few years back when we were living in North Carolina. History is kind of my jam! So, we would drive up to Virginia and visit different places and streets referenced in Hamilton.

I was so happy to be a part of the 30th year anniversary and having my family at the office to celebrate. To be able to see the impact we have had on our communities through the years, and the foundation AA was built from was inspiring. I was happy to be able to show and explain to my daughter how we create spaces for people’s voices to be heard and how those voices make a difference in their communities and remind her how she will always have a space to make her voice heard.

I had the privilege of studying abroad in Spain and stayed in Barcelona for a while.  I visited the famous LA Sagrada Familia Cathedral. I was/am a fan of Gaudi’s work and remember standing inside feeling like I was part of history. The construction on La Sagrada Familia started in 1882 and Gaudi never rushed to complete it. A 100 years later, they are expecting the construction to be completed in 2026 and my goal is to go back and see all it’s beauty in its entirety.

I enjoy reading, going to soccer and baseball games, and finding small adventures wherever I can. I enjoy reading anything WWII related. I love finding new restaurants and traveling whenever I can whether it’s up north to Cambria, visiting friends in San Diego or small road trips to Colorado to visit my sister. I love being out and about finding new experiences.

If we are at the office, I genuinely enjoy going to the little Rendez-vous Café around the corner. She always has light calming music playing and the environment is just relaxing. It’s a nice little getaway you can walk to in the middle of the day. My food recommendation would be the Chicken Pesto and the Rose Iced Green Tea. Too delicious and too refreshing!

When I was living in Okinawa, Japan, I challenged myself to hike Mt. Fuji overnight so I could watch the sun rise from the top of the mountain. It was one of the most beautiful, spiritual and challenging experiences of my life. I met so many different people along the way, kids, grandparents, new friends from Paris, and everyone’s journey up the mountain meant something different to them.

I’d love to learn a few more languages. I grew up hearing English and Spanish and picked up a little Japanese while living in Japan, but I love connecting with people and listening to their stories. I feel like stories are conveyed with such passion in other languages and I don’t want to miss the details.  

Every birthday my dad would sing happy birthday to me in Spanish before he left for work. As a kid, it was the sweetest way to wake up on my birthday. As an adult, it was the call I looked forward to. It felt like it wasn’t my birthday until he kicked the day off with his song.