In 1992, I graduated from Clemson University in South Carolina, with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology. I moved to the Atlanta area with my dog, Max, for about 4 months, and then I moved back to Clemson for graduate school.

I met my husband and graduated with my Master's Degree in Community/Agency Counseling and continued working for the South Carolina Department of Social Services. We got married in 1996, and in 1997, we moved back to the Atlanta area where I worked as a counselor, intake coordinator, and recruiter for a private therapeutic foster care agency.

I started working part-time after my second child, Evan, was born and finally quit altogether to stay at home when my 3rd child, Zack, was about a year old. I did contract work at home off and on here in Atlanta and briefly served as the State Director of a therapeutic foster care organization before I realized there was no way I could possibly do the job without sacrificing time with my children.