About Us

I am a survivor.

I learned many lessons growing up in a home with an older brother who had significant behavior issues that tore at the foundation of the family. Somewhere in my journey I made a pact with myself to learn how to help other families avoid the same struggles.

I have been awarded B.S. degrees in Elementary Education and Special Education and a Master’s Degree in Marriage, Family, and Child Therapy. Throughout my career, I have worked with youth in educational settings, therapeutic settings, day treatment settings, residential settings, and correctional settings and have seen firsthand the life-altering catastrophes that can arise from out of control behavior. I am the parent of four children in my first family and have been a foster parent for 30 years, sharing my home with children for whom living in a home… and participating in family and community life…would not have been possible without the rules and tools in the Pillars for Success program. I have “walked the walk” and I continue to do so!

Throughout my journey I have tested and re-tested interventions that are based on established research in child development. I have discovered that there are actually only three core needs that explain why children act out and I have developed amazingly effective techniques to meet those needs while simultaneously maintaining adult control. Additionally, I continue to broaden my education by attending specialized trainings in areas of child development, developmental disabilities, emotional dysregulation, family dynamics and human behavior and maintain close liaisons with the mental health community in my home town in Colorado and on a state and national level. My work includes roles as a classroom teacher, a treatment leader, a program director, a family advocate and an administrator, creating and delivering programs for children and families in different settings ranging from preschools and typical classrooms to day treatment centers and mental health facilities and group homes/vocational training centers.

I deliver presentations that teach the principles of the Pillars for Success program to both parents and professionals and have been enthusiastically received at professional conferences on both state and national levels such as The National Foster Parent Association, The Colorado Counseling Association, The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Conference, the Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health and the Department of Youth Corrections Conference. I am currently actively involved as a Family Partner for House Bill 1451 in Colorado that is focused on improving the delivery of care to families and youth in El Paso County. Along with my husband I am currently parenting one foster child in my own home.