After high school I did two years at Buffalo State College before transferring to the University of Texas at Austin where I pursued degree in education of the visually impaired. I taught at the Texas school for the blind and then in the Waco independence school District before relocating to California in 1985 with my husband and newborn daughter. We raised our family and Irvine and in the year 2000 I ran my first campaign for Irvine city Council. I won that race and four years later won my first term as mayor of Irvine. I would serve 16 years in total on the Irvine city Council including two terms as mayor. In 2010 I ran a race for Congress. It was during that race that we sadly lost our son, Noah, then 22 and just a week from his college graduation, to a tragic accident. Events like that change everything in an instant. After I left the city Council in 2016, I coached candidates and during Covid I wrote a book called Run Like You’ve Won: A Candidates Guide to Developing a Strong Message, Raising What You Need and Exciting the Electorate.