My entire life has been around the water. From a young age my family and I were swimmers and I can't remember a time when I didn't know how to swim or felt unsafe around the water. Aware that it is a privilege to be comfortable in pools and lakes, I spent 6 years as a lifeguard and swim instructor for the City of Kirkland. Working to serve my community and bring water safety to all.

As I grew, so did my passion to serve the community and I took a position as a PICU nurse at Seattle Children's Hospital. I witness the tragic pain and suffering patients and families go through related to water trauma.

This has sparked a passion to serve the special population of submersion victims as well as their family and the Learn to Swim Foundation will provide tools necessary to aid in this endeavor. 

With pools, lakes, streams and rivers all around us, it is our responsibility to make sure our children are safe. I have watched families who have lost loved ones due to drowning, including my own family when we lost my nephew in 2011. The water is an amazing and fun place, however, if you are not trained properly it becomes very dangerous.

I have had amazing experiences being able to work with students who have extreme fears or previously had near death water traumas and those experiences were filled with great highs and sad lows. My heart breaks whenever I see fear in a child's eyes before they enter the water or even get wet. However, I have been able to work with them and slowly work through their fears. As they progressed and began to swim again, the overwhelming emotions of excitement that they did it, gratitude that they will be safe, and happiness that another child will be able to enjoy the water again, continues to drive me every time I get in the water to teach lessons.

18 years ago I saw a need in my community for financial support for swim lessons. At the time I wasn’t able to pursue a solution, however, after serving my community for the past 20 years by teaching swim lessons, I have joined with my family to start the Learn to Swim Foundation. It will enable me to finally help those children and families who don’t have lessons due to financial difficulties, provide water safety awareness to my community and help with the emotional healing from water trauma.

My goal is to create a community where families are educated in water safety so they can create memories to share for a lifetime.

Over 20 years ago I learned to enjoy my favorite place on earth, the water.

Growing up with a pool and a swim teacher for a mother, I spent nearly all of my childhood in the water one way or another. As I began to get older, everything I was doing from enjoying my time with my friends and family to competing in sports and working happened to involve the water in some way.

From the age of 15 I have worked in and around lifeguard teams and programs. Over the years, I have learned many skills, had amazing experiences with random people at parks, made amazing friends, and have been able to provide care to many people. This time gave me the opportunity to evaluate the needs of my community in and around the water and I developed a passion for making the members of that community safer. 

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This passion to create a safer community around my world that I have grown to love pushes me to do everything I can to educate and protect the people I interact with daily. That's where the Learn to Swim Foundation has become a tool for this. Our team now uses the Foundation and its resources to provide the best opportunities for individuals and families to have the same experiences that we have been so fortunate to have had over the years.