I want to build my career in the nonprofit sector because it is the only place where the mission is the whole point. In a nonprofit, success is not measured in profit. It is measured in lives that got better, in communities that grew stronger, in problems that finally got the attention no one else would give them. That is the only scoreboard I have ever really cared about. This is not a new direction for me. It is where I already live. I serve on the board of the Organic Garden Club of Ventura County, sit on the steering committee of the Isabella Project, and work with Ventura County Farm to School. I am an advocate in the LGBTQ community. Across all of it, the thread is the same, a pull toward the people and causes that tend to fall through the cracks. My deeper reason comes from what I have learned about health. As a health coach, I came to see that I can only make a person as well as the world around them allows. Real health starts in the soil, moves through our food, and shows up in our bodies and minds. I call this the mind-gut-earth connection. The trouble is that the communities who most need clean soil and nourishing food are usually the ones with the least access to either. Closing that gap is exactly the kind of work the nonprofit sector exists to do. I hope my work creates impact in a few concrete ways. I want to help communities grow and reach food that is truly nourishing, rebuilding the local soil and the local knowledge that make it possible. I want to teach people the connection between the ground, their food, and their health, in plain language they can actually use, so caring for the earth becomes a way of caring for themselves. And I want to keep turning waste into something that heals the land instead of harming it, so the places people live get healthier over time, not sicker. Underneath all of it is a simpler goal. I want to be a voice for the people and the living systems that do not have one, the family that cannot find good food, the soil that everyone forgets, the next generation that will inherit whatever we leave behind. I have spent my life translating complicated things into something ordinary people can hold onto, and the nonprofit sector is where that skill does the most good. I am not chasing recognition or a paycheck. I am after the quiet, lasting kind of impact you can measure in healthier ground, healthier food, and healthier people, especially the ones who were told there was no help coming. That is the work I want to give my career to, and the nonprofit sector is where I can give it fully.

To me, ensuring everyone has a voice means making sure the people a decision affects are actually in the room when it is made. Too often the people with the most at stake, the overwhelmed parent, the person who learns differently, the community living next to the problem, are the ones least likely to be heard. I know that feeling from the inside. I returned to education later in life with a learning disability, and I am an openly LGBTQ woman, so I understand what it is to worry that your voice does not count. I also extend that value to the voices that cannot speak for themselves at all, the soil, the water, and the generations who will inherit the choices we make now. Part of giving everyone a voice is speaking for the future in rooms that tend to think only about the present. I try to live this out in practical ways. As president of my student chapter, I work to make sure the quieter members are heard, not just the loudest. In my health coaching, I listen to a person's full story before I ever offer guidance, because being heard is often the first step toward change. In community and policy work, I push to bring affected residents into decisions and to translate complex information into plain language so more people can take part. And as a mentor to other nontraditional students, I try to be living proof that someone like them belongs at the table. Health is not only personal. It is a matter of fairness. The families with the least money often get the least nourishing food, and that gap shows up in their bodies as disease. Here is a hidden part of the problem. The fruits and vegetables we eat carry fewer vitamins and minerals than they did decades ago (Davis et al., 2004). We are eating more and getting less. Plants build those nutrients from the ground they grow in, so when our soil is worn out, our food and our bodies pay the price. Nutrient shortfalls are linked to lasting, chronic harm to our health (Bailey et al., 2015). If we heal the soil, we help put the nutrients back. Restoring our land is not only good for the planet. It is how we close the health gap and give everyone a fair shot at being well. Giving everyone a voice is not a slogan to me. It is a daily practice of listening first, making room, and refusing to let the people with the most at stake be the ones left out. Civic, leadership, and policy roles I filled in the roles I know. You will need to add dates and verification contacts, since I do not have those. President, ICMA Student Chapter, California Lutheran University. 2023-2026 PJ Gagajena 805-517-6212 Local Government Management Fellow, ICMA. 2023-2026 David Lang 202 962 3553 Intern, City Manager's Office, City of Moorpark, CA. Supervisor: Jonathan Royas. 3/26-6/26 (805) 402-2939 Board Member, Organic Garden Club of Ventura County. 2023-present Diana Lovejoy 8181-613-6262 Steering Committee Member, The Isabella Project of Ventura County. 2023-present Lauren Graf Peña 805.330.6668 LGBTQ+ Advocate. Speaker, LACCD Lavender ceremony, 2021. Featured, Los Angeles Blade, 2021. https://www.losangelesblade.com/2021/06/23/laccds-next-generation-of-pride-looking-to-the-future/

On the hardest days, when I am stretched past what feels possible, I do not push through for myself. I push through for my two children. I became a mother as a teenager, and again more than twenty years later, so I am raising a grown child and a new baby at the same time. They are twenty years apart, and they are the reason I refuse to quit. Everything I am building, I am building so their future is brighter than my hardest days. I learned how to persevere from the women who came before me, and I come from a long line of them. One crossed the Oregon Trail and lost babies to the cold, and kept going anyway. One raised prize-winning Brahman bulls. One brewed beer to feed five children she was raising on her own. These women endured impossible things for their families, and they passed down a simple truth. You do not get to stop when people are counting on you. My earliest hero belonged to that same mold. Growing up, I idolized Annie Oakley, a girl who learned to provide for her family before most children are trusted with anything, and who moved through the world unafraid. She showed me young that courage is not given to you. You build it, usually because someone you love needs you to. I do not have to look to the past to find that strength. My sister is a nurse who cares for her patients while living with multiple sclerosis, raising two children, and doing all of it on her own. She is one of the bravest people I know, and every time I watch her keep going for her kids, I find a little more fuel to keep going for mine. The last heroes I carry are the women who broke into STEM and science, told the lab was not for them, who walked in anyway. They cleared a path I now get to walk, and I feel a duty to keep it clear for whoever comes next. More than anything, I want my children to grow up certain those doors are open to them. This is the impact I want to make, and it grows straight out of that motivation. I am finishing my master's degree in public policy, and I plan to use it inside local government, shaping the health, food, and environmental decisions that quietly determine whether families can thrive. Alongside that, I am building a venture I call endcycling, which turns waste our recycling system cannot handle into products that rebuild soil and grow cleaner food. Both come down to the same goal, leaving my children, and everyone's children, a healthier world to inherit. My vision is simple. I want the next generation to grow up on cleaner ground, with better food and stronger support than the generations before them. And the change I am determined to create is structural, not symbolic. I want to build the kind of support the women in my family had to live without, so the next parent holding a family together alone does not have to do it on willpower and luck. I persevere for my children, and I always will. My job now is to honor the women who made me by becoming one of them, a woman who was strong when it counted and left the world a little better on her way through. One day, I want my kids to look at that world and know their mother never stopped trying to make it better for them.

On paper, my background looks like it belongs to four different people. I have spent more than twenty years in marketing and communication, I hold a diploma in mycology, I am finishing a master's degree in public policy, and I run a health coaching practice. People often ask how those fit together. The honest answer is that they were never really apart. The thread running through all of them is a refusal to treat the world's problems as separate from one another. That habit started early. I grew up on a regenerative farm, where I learned before I could name it that soil, food, and human health are one connected system. Healthy ground grows healthy food, and healthy food builds healthy people. I have carried that single idea, what I think of as the mind-gut-earth connection, into every chapter of my life since. My path to this point was not a straight or easy one. I left high school young, became a mother, and came back to education years later, eventually as a McNair Scholar. I learn differently, with dyslexia and dysgraphia, so most of what I have built came through persistence rather than ease. I am grateful for all of it now, because it taught me how to keep going and showed me exactly why this work matters. I plan to make my impact through two arms of the same mission. The first is policy. As I finish my degree, I am headed into local government, where I want to work on health, food, and environmental policy, the everyday decisions that quietly determine whether families can eat well and live well. My role, the one I am built for, is to be the translator between the scientists who understand a problem and the officials who can act on it, turning research into programs people can actually use. The second arm is the venture I am building, an approach I call endcycling. It takes materials our recycling system cannot handle, including microplastics and contaminated packaging, and uses biological decomposition to turn them into products that rebuild soil instead of poisoning it. I want to prove that repairing the land can be good business rather than charity, because a solution that pays for itself is a solution that lasts. Both of these come back to the same belief. The biggest problems we face, in our health, our food, and our environment, are not really separate problems. They are one problem wearing different costumes, and they can be solved the same way, by tending the systems we all depend on. I want to spend my career being a voice for the parts of that system that cannot speak for themselves, the soil beneath us and the generations who will inherit it. I am not chasing a flashy kind of impact. I am after the lasting kind, the sort you measure in healthier ground, healthier food, and healthier communities a long time from now. If my career leaves the systems I touched stronger than I found them, and leaves a few more people connecting the dots the way I have learned to, then I will have done exactly what I set out to do.

At 544 words. People sometimes assume that being a single parent is the thing slowing my education down. The truth is the opposite. My children are the engine behind everything I do. I have been a parent across two very different chapters of my life. I had my first child as a teenager, and my second more than twenty years later, a new baby I am raising now while finishing my degree. For much of this stretch I have parented largely on my own, because my partner's health keeps him in and out of the hospital. I love him, and I have learned to carry our family with steadiness even when the weight lands on me alone. Here is what that has done for my education, and it is mostly good. Parenting by myself taught me to use time like it is precious, because it is. I do not have hours to waste, so I do not waste them. I study during naps, in waiting rooms, and in the quiet after bedtime, and I have become remarkably good at making small windows count. When you cannot rely on extra time, you learn to make the time you have work harder. It also gave my education a clarity I am grateful for. My degree is not abstract to me. Every paper I write and every exam I pass is a brick in the foundation under my children's lives. That kind of purpose is a gift. It is very hard to quit when you can see exactly who you are doing it for. And my kids keep me hopeful. My older child has watched me chase this down and tells me he is proud, which is its own kind of fuel. My baby will grow up never knowing a version of me that gave up. Twenty years apart, they are both teaching me the same thing, that it is never too late to build the life you want. That brings me to how I plan to give back, which grows directly out of this experience. I want to build the support that parents like me so often have to do without. Right now, whether a struggling parent makes it through school can come down to luck, one flexible professor or one program that happened to exist. I want to turn that luck into something dependable. I am finishing my Master of Public Policy and Administration with a focus on health and food policy, the everyday decisions that shape whether families can stay healthy and stay afloat. I also plan to give back in a closer, more personal way. I want to mentor other parents and nontraditional students, the ones who walk into a classroom certain they do not belong there. I have sat in that seat, often with a baby on my hip, and I want them to see someone who carried a full life and still made it through. Being a single parent did not put my education on hold. It gave it a heartbeat. The resourcefulness, the focus, and the refusal to give up that my children pulled out of me are exactly what I intend to pour back into my community, for every parent coming up behind me who needs to know it can be done.

I come at this question from two directions at once, as a student who has needed her mental health to hold, and as a health coach trained in how the mind actually works. Here is the simplest way I can put it. Mental health is the soil. You can plant the best seeds, all the talent and ambition and opportunity in the world, but if the soil is depleted, nothing takes root. I have lived seasons where my soil was thin, while facing serious illness, while caring for the people I love, while learning in a brain that reads and writes differently than most. In those stretches, I learned that tending my mental health was not a luxury competing with my studies. It was the thing that made studying possible at all. My work has only deepened that conviction. As a health coach certified in nutritional psychiatry, I focus on the connection between the gut, the brain, and the food we eat. Growing research shows that the gut and the brain are in constant conversation, like a two-way street that never closes. What we feed our bodies shapes our mood, our focus, and our resilience. For me, mental health is not separate from physical health or academic success. They are all branches of the same tree. That is also why mental health matters so much to me specifically as a student. Students are told to push through, to run on caffeine and willpower and very little sleep. I know that road, and I know it does not lead anywhere good. A rested, nourished, supported mind learns better, remembers more, and lasts longer. Protecting it is not falling behind. It is how you go the distance. The way I advocate flows naturally from all of this. In my professional work, I teach individuals and organizations that caring for the mind can start with something as ordinary as what is on their plate. It is advocacy that meets people where they already are, at the kitchen table, and gives them a sense of control over something that often feels out of reach. On campus, I try to be honest about my own path. As a nontraditional student, a McNair Scholar, and the president of my student chapter, I am in rooms with people who assume everyone else has it together. When I am open about the fact that I have struggled and kept going, it gives the person next to me permission to admit they are struggling too. Stigma loses its power the moment someone says the quiet part out loud. I also advocate within the LGBTQ community, where the mental health burden is heavier than most people realize, and where simply being visible and steady can remind someone that they are not alone. And it starts at home. I am raising two children, born twenty years apart, and I want both of them to grow up understanding that caring for your mind is a strength, not a weakness. The healthiest thing I can model for them is a mother who treats her own wellbeing as something worth protecting. Mental health matters to me because I have felt what happens when it is ignored, and I have felt what becomes possible when it is cared for. I want to spend my life helping people tend that soil, so that more of us get the chance to grow into everything we could be.

My life has not followed a straight line, now, in my forties, I would not trade the crooked path for anything, because every turn taught me something I get to use today. I grew up on a regenerative farm, where I learned young that healthy soil grows healthy food, and healthy food grows healthy people. That idea became the compass for everything that followed. I became a mother as a teenager and left high school early, certain the classroom door had closed behind me. What I did not know then was that it was only paused, not locked. For the next twenty years, I built a life. I gained two decades of marketing & communication experience, became a health coach, & never stopped studying what fascinated me, from mycology to integrative medicine. I also faced down cancer, twice, & came through with a fierce gratitude for the time I have & a clear sense of how I want to spend it. Then life handed me a second chance in the most literal way. Twenty years after my first child, I became a mother again to a new baby. Parenting at two completely different stages of life, as a teenager and again in my forties, taught me something I now believe with my whole heart. It is never too late to grow, and your best chapter can still be ahead of you. So I went back to school. I am now a McNair Scholar finishing my Master of Public Policy and Administration, returning to graduate work in my forties with a newborn on my hip and a grown child cheering me on. Coming to this now, rather than at twenty, is not a disadvantage. It is my edge. I carry four decades of real life into every classroom, and I know exactly why I am here. These experiences shaped my values into something simple & strong. I believe in regeneration, the idea that what is damaged can be rebuilt, whether that is soil, a community, or a life. I believe in interdependence, that we go further by caring for one another. I believe in showing up honestly, especially as an openly LGBTQ woman who wants the next person to know they belong. My aspirations grow straight from that compass. I want to work in health, food, environmental policy at the local level, where everyday decisions shape whether families can eat well and live well. I am also developing a venture, an approach I call endcycling, that turns waste the recycling system rejects into products that rebuild soil and grow cleaner food. Both are the same mission in different clothes, healing the systems that heal. Service is already part of my weeks. I lead my campus ICMA student chapter, serve on a local garden club board, I am committed to mentoring other adult learners, parents, and students with learning differences, because I want to be living proof that starting again at any age is not only possible, it is powerful. This scholarship would do something practical and powerful. It would ease the financial pressure of finishing my degree getting my work off the ground, so I can put my energy into building rather than just keeping up. More than that, it is an investment that multiplies, because everything I learn flows straight back out into healthier soil, healthier food, and stronger communities. I am betting my whole life on the belief that it is never too late to make things better, this scholarship would help me prove it, not just for me, but for every person who thought their chance had passed.

My goal is simple to state and hard to do. I want to build a business that makes healing the soil more profitable than harming it. The approach, which I call endcycling, takes materials our recycling system cannot handle, including microplastics and contaminated packaging, and uses biological decomposition with fungi and superworms to turn them into soil-building products and into packaging grown from mycelium. In short, a venture that earns its living by repairing the land and the food web instead of adding to the damage. My plan unfolds in three phases, and the timing matters as much as the idea. Year one is proof and partnership. I will validate the biology at lab scale and, just as critical, secure a revenue-generating industry partner here in Ventura County, a seafood distributor or a packaging manufacturer. That partner is the single most important piece, because the state's Recycling Market Development Zone lends equipment to an operating company, not to a research idea. At the same time, I am advancing a National Science Foundation SBIR pitch to fund the early science. Year two is the pilot. Using the partner's waste stream and a Recycling Market Development Zone equipment loan, I will run the process at small scale and prove the four ways the business earns: tipping fees for accepting material, worm castings sold as soil amendment, mycelium packaging, and biochar from spent substrate. Four income streams mean the venture never rests on a single bet. Years two to three are scale. With a working pilot in hand, I will raise a seed round to expand to more partners and more municipalities. The resources required are specific. I need climate-controlled pilot space, decomposition and rearing equipment, a mycelium growing setup, and independent testing to measure how completely the material breaks down. I also need scientific advisors in entomology and mycology, regulatory guidance to meet end-market rules, and my own time and twenty years of marketing experience to build demand. Here is the year one validation budget, the cheapest and most decisive money in the whole plan: Pilot space, climate-controlled: $7,000 Bioreactor and superworm rearing setup: $10,000 Mycelium materials, molds, and substrate: $3,000 Independent lab testing: $5,000 Scientific advisors: $4,000 Provisional patent and compliance review: $5,000 Contingency: $3,000 Total: $37,000 Beyond this phase, the funding path is already mapped: SBIR for the science, the equipment loan for the pilot, and a seed round for scale. I have thought hard about the angles, because the biggest risk in any plan is depending on a single path. If the partner search runs slow, the grant and SBIR track keeps the science moving. If one revenue stream underperforms, three others carry the model. The contingency line absorbs the surprises every pilot brings. And because I am finishing my Master of Public Policy and Administration this year, I understand the regulations and municipal contracts this venture lives inside, not only the biology. The plan is built so that money follows proof. I do not need everything at once. I need enough to prove the idea works, and a clear next step for every stage after that. This scholarship would go straight into that first validation phase, where a small amount of funding does the most to turn an idea into evidence.

I grew up on a regenerative farm, where I learned early that soil and water are not two separate things. They are one moving system. The rain that lands on a field does not stop at the fence line. It gathers, travels, and eventually reaches the sea. So when I later understood that plastic never truly disappears, that it only breaks into smaller and smaller pieces called microplastics, the ocean stopped feeling far away. Those particles ride the same water I grew up watching. They move from our streets and landfills into rivers, into the sea, into the fish, and back onto our plates. The ocean is not a distant place I am trying to save. It is tied to the food on my table and to the health of my own body. That connection is the center of my work. As a health coach certified in nutritional psychiatry, I focus on the mind-gut-earth connection, the idea that the health of the soil and water shapes the health of our food and, in turn, ourselves. Microplastics now appear in seafood and in human tissue, which means ocean pollution is no longer only an environmental problem. It is a human health problem. Think of the ocean as one of the planet's kidneys. Poison the water that filters our world, and we eventually poison ourselves. I care about the ocean because I refuse to treat these problems as separate. But caring is not enough, so I have spent years building a response. The work I am developing, which I call endcycling, takes materials that currently have nowhere to go, including microplastics and packaging that cannot be recycled, and runs them through biological decomposition using organisms like fungi and superworms. The goal is to turn that waste into material that rebuilds soil instead of washing out to sea, and to replace plastic packaging with alternatives grown from mycelium. In plain terms, I would rather turn off the tap than spend my life mopping the floor. This is where my degree becomes the most important tool I have. I am finishing my Master of Public Policy and Administration at California Lutheran University, with a focus on environmental and food policy in local government. Pulling plastic out of the ocean one net at a time will never keep pace with how fast we make it. Policy is the only lever large enough to slow the flow at its source. With my degree, I plan to help cities and regions adopt circular-economy policies that hold producers responsible for their packaging, reduce single-use plastic, and fund the infrastructure that keeps waste out of our waterways. I want to be the translator who sits between the scientists who understand the problem and the officials who can act on it, turning research into programs that communities can use. The health of the ocean does not begin offshore. It begins upstream, on land, in the everyday choices we make about what we throw away. With my education, I intend to be the person who connects those dots in the rooms where decisions are made, so that what we discard stops ending up in the sea and inside of us. I want to be a voice for the waters, the food web, and the generations who cannot yet speak for themselves.

Dedicating myself to getting policy changed and being an advocate for the microorganisms that do not have a voice while fighting the current agricultural model for the benefit of human health. Presently I freelance for a marketing firm called Media Buy Agency as an investigative researcher for sales copy to generate leads to disperse to law firms doing mass tort cases against companies who cause people harm, making sure the victim gets paid. I researched aided in the case against J&J's Talc to be taken off the shelf. After learning how bad the current state of affairs is with carbon, heat, and consumption for a class project, I decided to act. Bringing one of my project ideas to life. Presently working on a way to help people grow their own sustainable, organic, regenerative food to help local food scarcity issues. Going to school full time and balancing applying for grants, working, and starting this campaign to try to heal the soil has not been easy. Scholarships like this one will help. I also tend a small personal garden, vermicomposting as well as conducting soil experiments for carbon capture. I want to hold the companies accountable due to the current atrocities some corporations are perpetually allowed to get away with. The human life the corporations are allowed to dismiss is sickening to me and I want to fight for the lives lost to the end without settling. I feel I can make a real difference, especially having firsthand experience in cleaning up the mess that is made from poor policy in place, that would prevent such disasters and preserve life. The campaign I am working on can help educate the masses while helping positive change policy and heal the soil. Currently, I work with select clientele Certified Health and Transformation coach with certifications in: NLP, REBT, CBT, Hypnotherapy, Yoga, and relationships and helping people heal the neural pathways in response to trauma within the brain. This has been a lifelong passion and journey for me. I have my own theories of ways to heal the brain, but current policy stops the general population from healing. I would like to change that. I want to make sure the soil is amended, that food security is a tangible thing for everyone, energy can be free, along with education. With enough policy, we can change human health as a whole and make sure carbon emissions are curbed enough to help climate change in the current earth's cycle. I see policymakers making decisions based on monetary gain and not the bettering of human life. I see governments taking advantage of the uneducated and undernourished. I see schools not feeding nutritious food and having mental disturbances that can lead to mass trauma. However, if we allow the current agriculture model to control our nation and our mental capabilities, we cannot think right on how to advance as a healthy society, and I would love to change that with your help.

Finding my own learning disabilities at 30 years old was challenging enough. After a debilitating spinal defect and surgery that led to being a high school dropout! Quickly, I learned how the mind and body are connected. Twice I won the battle with cancer, I had enough. I was determined to get healthy by Mastering my own IgA deficiency which lead to a spiral of health, neurological, and learning challenges that have inspired me to help others who want to move forward in business and in life. Through disability awareness, inclusion, and neurodiversity in the workplace, I have traveled across the country helping individuals and companies increase their ROE as well as personal growth! With Biohacking, understanding the “anxiety-pain cycle”, learning my own abilities, and naturopathy, I have not only helped myself but so many others who struggle with the same health situations in the workplace and within daily interactions. Now I am a certified life coach with certifications in; NLP, REBT, CBT, Hypnotherapy, Yoga, and relationships with over 600 hours in CE credits practicing since 2009. Presently I help people rewrite the neuropathways in response to PTSD/sexual/trauma with the use of holotropic plant medicine (if in correlation to doctors’ recommendations) and cognitive behavioral therapy incorporating live-action role play. I have helped people relieve themselves of medications like: Opiates THC NSAIDS Amphetamines Barbiturates Antipsychotics Klonopin/Benzodiazepine Along with being able to biohack my own health so that my blood work is normal, my Crohn's is nonexistent and my back pain from Harrington rods does not need the wheelchair they destined me for years ago. I stay fit and eat for my genetic need as well as my particular food allergies to help with proper cellular signaling. 2020 pushed me in a direction of learning that included herbalism, naturopathy, soil science, and microbiology. After almost losing my partner to lupus last December 2021 and seeing how the medical field took care of the issues along with my own life journey with health I see how I can better help more people through policy. however, I know that unless the policy is financially beneficial it will be dismissed. I also believe how we market food needs to be amended for the better of human health. Dedicating myself to getting policy changed and being an advocate for the microorganisms that do not have a voice while fighting the current agricultural model for the benefit of human health. Presently I freelance for a marketing firm called Media Buy Agency as an investigative researcher for sales copy to generate leads to disperse to law firms doing mass tort cases against companies who cause people harm, making sure the victim gets paid. I researched aided in the case against J&J's Talc to be taken off the shelf. Hopefully, I can help others learn how to care for themselves through my own health journey and aid in policy for the benefit of all human health while helping all parties profit.

Finding my own learning disabilities at 30 years old was challenging enough. After a debilitating spinal defect and surgery that led to being a high school dropout! Quickly, I learned how the mind and body are connected. By 2017 I had won the battle with cancer twice, I had enough. I was determined to get healthy by Mastering my own IgA deficiency which lead to a spiral of health, neurological, and learning challenges that have inspired me to help others who want to move forward in business and in life. Through disability awareness, inclusion, and neurodiversity in the workplace, I have traveled across the country helping individuals and companies increase their ROE as well as personal growth! With Biohacking, understanding the “anxiety-pain cycle”, learning my own abilities, and naturopathy, I have not only helped myself but so many others who struggle with the same health situations in the workplace and within daily interactions. Now I am a certified life coach with certifications in; NLP, REBT, CBT, Hypnotherapy, Yoga, and relationships with over 600 hours in CE credits practicing since 2009. Presently I help people rewrite the neuropathways in response to PTSD/sexual/trauma with the use of holotropic plant medicine (if in correlation to doctors’ recommendations) and cognitive behavioral therapy incorporating live-action role play. I have helped people relieve themselves of medications like: Opiates THC NSAIDS Amphetamines Barbiturates Antipsychotics Klonopin/Benzodiazepine Along with being able to biohack my own health so that my blood work is normal, my Crohn's is nonexistent and my back pain from Harrington rods does not need the wheelchair they destined me for years ago. I stay fit and eat for my genetic need as well as my particular food allergies to help with proper cellular signaling. in 2018 was a part of the Woosley fires in Sothern California, with everything being a complete loss. 2020 pushed me in a direction of learning that included herbalism, naturopathy, soil science, and microbiology. After almost losing my partner to lupus last December 2021 and seeing how the medical field took care of the issues along with my own life journey with health I see how I can better help more people through policy. however, I know that unless the policy is financially beneficial it will be dismissed. I also believe how we market food needs to be amended for the better of human health. Dedicating myself to getting policy changed and being an advocate for the microorganisms that do not have a voice while fighting the current agricultural model for the benefit of human health. Presently I freelance for a lead generation company called Media Buy Agency as an investigative researcher for sales copy to generate leads to disperse to law firms doing mass tort cases against companies who cause people harm, making sure the victim gets paid. I researched aided in the case against J&J's Talc to be taken off the shelf. Hopefully, I can help others learn how to care for themselves through my own health journey and aid in policy for the benefit of all human health while helping all parties profit.

Finding my own learning disabilities at 30 years old was challenging enough. After a debilitating spinal defect and surgery that led to being a high school dropout! Quickly, I learned how the mind and body are connected. Twice I won the battle with cancer, I had enough. I was determined to get healthy by Mastering my own IgA deficiency which lead to a spiral of health, neurological, and learning challenges that have inspired me to help others who want to move forward in business and in life. Through disability awareness, inclusion, and neurodiversity in the workplace, I have traveled across the country helping individuals and companies increase their ROE as well as personal growth! With Biohacking, understanding the “anxiety-pain cycle”, learning my own abilities, and naturopathy, I have not only helped myself but so many others who struggle with the same health situations in the workplace and within daily interactions. Now I am a certified life coach with certifications in; NLP, REBT, CBT, Hypnotherapy, Yoga, and relationships with over 600 hours in CE credits practicing since 2009. Presently I help people rewrite the neuropathways in response to PTSD/sexual/trauma with the use of holotropic plant medicine (if in correlation to doctors’ recommendations) and cognitive behavioral therapy incorporating live-action role play. I have helped people relieve themselves of medications like: Opiates THC NSAIDS Amphetamines Barbiturates Antipsychotics Klonopin/Benzodiazepine Along with being able to biohack my own health so that my blood work is normal, my Crohn's is nonexistent and my back pain from Harrington rods does not need the wheelchair they destined me for years ago. I stay fit and eat for my genetic need as well as my particular food allergies to help with proper cellular signaling. 2020 pushed me in a direction of learning that included herbalism, naturopathy, soil science, and microbiology. After almost losing my partner to lupus last December 2021 and seeing how the medical field took care of the issues along with my own life journey with health I see how I can better help more people through policy. however, I know that unless the policy is financially beneficial it will be dismissed. I also believe how we market food needs to be amended for the better of human health. Dedicating myself to getting policy changed and being an advocate for the microorganisms that do not have a voice while fighting the current agricultural model for the benefit of human health. Presently I freelance for a marketing firm called Media Buy Agency as an investigative researcher for sales copy to generate leads to disperse to law firms doing mass tort cases against companies who cause people harm, making sure the victim gets paid. I researched aided in the case against J&J's Talc to be taken off the shelf. Hopefully, I can help others learn how to care for themselves through my own health journey and aid in policy for the benefit of all human health while helping all parties profit.

Finding my own learning disabilities at 30 years old was challenging enough. After a debilitating spinal defect and surgery that led to being a high school dropout! Quickly, I learned how the mind and body are connected. Twice I won the battle with cancer, I had enough. I was determined to get healthy by Mastering my own IgA deficiency which lead to a spiral of health, neurological, and learning challenges that have inspired me to help others who want to move forward in business and in life. Through disability awareness, inclusion, and neurodiversity in the workplace, I have traveled across the country helping individuals and companies increase their ROE as well as personal growth! With Biohacking, understanding the “anxiety-pain cycle”, learning my own abilities, and naturopathy, I have not only helped myself but so many others who struggle with the same health situations in the workplace and within daily interactions. Now I am a certified life coach with certifications in; NLP, REBT, CBT, Hypnotherapy, Yoga, and relationships with over 600 hours in CE credits practicing since 2009. Presently I help people rewrite the neuropathways in response to PTSD/sexual/trauma with the use of holotropic plant medicine (if in correlation to doctors’ recommendations) and cognitive behavioral therapy incorporating live-action role play. I have helped people relieve themselves of medications like: Opiates THC NSAIDS Amphetamines Barbiturates Antipsychotics Klonopin/Benzodiazepine Along with being able to biohack my own health so that my blood work is normal, my Crohn's is nonexistent and my back pain from Harrington rods does not need the wheelchair they destined me for years ago. I stay fit and eat for my genetic need as well as my particular food allergies to help with proper cellular signaling. 2020 pushed me in a direction of learning that included herbalism, naturopathy, soil science, and microbiology. After almost losing my partner to lupus last December 2021 and seeing how the medical field took care of the issues along with my own life journey with health I see how I can better help more people through policy. however, I know that unless the policy is financially beneficial it will be dismissed. I also believe how we market food needs to be amended for the better of human health. Dedicating myself to getting policy changed and being an advocate for the microorganisms that do not have a voice while fighting the current agricultural model for the benefit of human health. Presently I freelance for a marketing firm called Media Buy Agency as an investigative researcher for sales copy to generate leads to disperse to law firms doing mass tort cases against companies who cause people harm, making sure the victim gets paid. I researched aided in the case against J&J's Talc to be taken off the shelf. Hopefully, I can help others learn how to care for themselves through my own health journey and aid in policy for the benefit of all human health while helping all parties profit.

As a mom, Elastagirl has a special place in my heart. It is hard to keep a family together and close even if you can reach all across the world. She shows the amount of personal strength a mother has as well the amount of love she has for her family no matter the situation. Her curiosity is endearing along with her sense of adventure. She is always trying to keep smiles on people's faces even in the face of adversity. I am not sure how she will handle Jack-Jack but I am sure it will be a great example for all mothers with difficult hard-to-manage children. In a way, I was that child and sometimes wish my mother's demeanor was more of Elastagirl. It was refreshing to see a mother be in such control of her emotions while being a superhero. She never complains and always chooses to ask questions instead of being confrontational. These are traits I actually modeled for my own motherhood to my son. Growing up seeing a healthier side of the family on Disney did our family a lot of good. To this day I still watch the Incredibles and always see something new. I think role models even if in cartoon form are vital for the development of children and young adults. I was a young mother at 20 and a high school dropout. My role models were limited and we didn't have cable TV just a VCR for movies. So I watched a lot of Disney movies. Later in life realizing how toxic a lot of them were I stopped watching. I went very anti-Disney for a long time. When the healthier movies like Incredibles started to come out I gladly put my DVR on repeat. I am happy to report my son is now 17 and a very healthy young man. He thinks his mom is a big nerd for going back to school but I know he is proud as we snapchat every day.

“Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food” -Hippocrates "When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct, medicine is of no need" -Ayurvedic Proverb Finding my own learning disabilities at 30 was challenging enough. After a debilitating spinal defect and surgery that led to being a high school drop out! Quickly, I learned how the mind and body are connected. Twice I won the battle with cancer, I had enough! I was determined to get healthy by Mastering my own IgA deficiency that lead to a spiral of health, neurological, and learning challenges has inspired me to help others who want to move forward in business and in life. Through disability awareness, inclusion and neurodiversity in the workplace, I have traveled across the country helping individuals and companies increase their ROI as well as personal growth! With Biohacking, understanding the “anxiety-pain cycle”, learning my own abilities and naturopathy, I have not only helped myself, but so many others who struggle with the same health situations in the work place and within daily interactions. Now I am a certified life coach with certifications in: NLP, REBT, CBT, Hypnotherapy, Yoga, and relationships with over 600 hours in CE credits practicing since 2009. Presently I help people rewrite the neuropathways in response to PTSD/sexual/trauma with use of holotropic plant medicine (if in correlation to doctors’ recommendations) and cognitive behavioral therapy incorporating live action role play. I have helped people relieve themselves of medications like Opiates THC NSAIDS Amphetamines Barbiturates Antipsychotics Klonopin/Benzodiazepine Along with being able to biohack my own health so that my blood work is normal, my Crohn's is non existent and my back pain from Harrington rods do not need the wheel chair they destined me for years ago. I stay fit and eat for my genetic need as well as my particular food allergies to help with proper cellular signaling enough to be a goalie in Ice hockey and keep up with the men 2020 pushed me in a direction of learning that included herbalism, naturopathy, soil science and microbiology. After almost losing my partner to lupus this last December 2021 and seeing how the medical field took care of the issues along with my own life journey with health I see how I can better help more people through policy. Dedicating myself to getting policy changed and being an advocate for the microorganisms that do not have a voice while fighting the current agricultural model for the benefit of human health. Presently I freelance for a marketing firm called Media Buy Agency as an investigative researcher for sales copy to generate leads to disperse to law firms doing mass tort cases against companies who cause people harm, making sure the victim gets paid. I researched aided in the case against J&J's Talc to be taken off the shelf. The research I have gathered has helped me learn so much about why our health is generally poor in the USA. Hopefully I can help others learn how to care for themselves through my own health journey and aiding in policy for the benefit of all human health.

The God Particle (Higgs boson) Possibly the key to time travel and looking into the very beginning of time itself. It is associated with the Higgs field, a field that gives mass to other fundamental particles such as electrons and quarks. As particles of energy hit it then gain matter in order to determine that particles mass. It basically give things their mass. the photon, which is the particle of light and carries the electromagnetic force, has no mass at all. The Higgs boson gets its mass just like other particles—from its own interactions with the Higgs field. While the Higgs boson gives mass to the quarks that make up a proton, it is only responsible for giving a proton about 10% of its mass. The other 90% of a proton’s mass comes from the complex interactions of the quarks and the strong nuclear force. Professor Thomas Weiler says that this way of time travel, using the god particle will avoid time paradoxes. To me this is fascinating as I study neuroscience and brain cell regeneration. This can mean a variety of realities for us in the future, one being of that which we can tangibly create ourself. Which is what metaphysics has also been teaching us. This can help bridge the gap of understanding from the physical world to the metaphysical world and everything in between to help better understand the reason for human consciousness. It think it will be fun when science realizes it is for the purpose of love and healing, only the future will tell (or maybe the past)

My son is my entire world. Even with a severe case of parent alienation from the other parent along with poor psychological guidance from a corrupt counselor, I have managed to keep a relationship with my son. My only child, due to cervical cancer I was told I would never get pregnant so at 19 as a high school dropout I said ok and it was the best decision I have ever made. Even if his father has tried to turn my son against me. I have used every means possible and now that my son is 17 we snapchat each other all day long. When he was a baby I was in school, working as a night club promoter and a dancer at a bikini bar. I worked around the clock and slept only during his naps. After his father’s 3rd DUI I left him and he has tried to punish me ever since. Telling my son I was drug dealer along with a plethora of other lies. I was working in the adult industry behind the camera and helping women empowerment teaching women how to hold boundaries and to love themself. However more lies later and my sons opinion of me was so bad in 2020 he made the choice to just stay at his fathers house and has been there ever since. This pushed me to go back to school and show him that I am capable even with learning and physical disabilities that his father calls me a hypochondriac for. However the metal rods in my back tell a different story. One living in the pain scale of 6-8 every day without medication so I can be sober for my son. Plant medicine and herbalism has got me through. Now I am getting a masters in public policy to change things for single women and for the general societies health. The mental illness surrounding poor health around single mothers is very real. I intend to change policy for women and mothers giving more support and more of a voice in politics. Getting a masters of public policy has opened my eyes to a world of possibilities I didn't even know existed. After applying and receiving a 20k/year scholarship I had no reason to stop now. I have shown my son that with learning disabilities you still have abilities, with physical limitations you are still capable and you can do anything you set your mind to. He is a healthy happy 17 year old boy on the football team, the lacrosse team and surf team while teaching physically and mentally limited children how to surf. Slowing my growth brings us closer every day. Every day is another chance for me to show him better than he was told and do better than he’s ever seen. I am happy I took my one opportunity to have a child even if it wasn't the experience I had hoped for. It guides every facet of my life and I wouldn't have it any other way. If it wasn't for the DSS services at the colleges I would never have known I could have help If it wasn't for scholarships I would never have known I could get a masters If it wasn't for the help I have gotten so far I would have been just another statistic.

As a first-generation college student with financial need after being a victim of the Woosley fire and a survivor of invisible autoimmune diseases I refuse to stay a victim. After Battling physical and learning disabilities they helped me graduate while giving me the confidence I needed to set higher goals. I am a high school drop out with a spinal deformity who was shopping for a wheelchair two years ago. I have what is called an IGA deficiency with auto immune and extreme Crohn's disease. Beating cancer twice, surviving losing everything in the Woolsey fires and raising a happy healthy teen boy I feel this degree can only enhance my ability to keep surviving against all the statistics I could have fallen into. My degree has been and is currently, my saving grace. I am thankful it has led me here. Being a huge advocate in the LGBTQ community I was a speaker at LACCD 2001 Lavender ceremony as well as was recognized in the LA BLADE magazine. https://www.losangelesblade.com/2021/06/23/laccds-next-generation-of-pride-looking-to-the-future/ Starting again late in life after being a high school drop out after a debilitating spinal deformity Pierce college helped me recognize other struggles like extreme dyslexia and dysgraphia. With the help of special programs like Disability services I was able to graduate and plan a new life for myself that was full of passion and directional focus of the first time. I have a strong passion for what I do and that is helping people. As a professional performance coach for businesses getting companies ready to expand and help with lead generation this degree will further my ability to help people. Certified life coach with certifications in: NLP, REBT, CBT, Hypnotherapy, Yoga, and relationships with over 150 hours in CE credits practicing since 2009.Presently I help people rewrite the neural pathways in response to PTSD/sexual/trauma with use of entheogens (if in correlation to doctors’ recommendations) and cognitive behavioral therapy incorporating live action role play With my company LARP studio. I have helped people relieve themselves of medications like Opiates THC NSAIDS Amphetamines Barbiturates Antipsychotics Klonopin/Benzodiazepine I was accepted into the 4+1 master’s program from California Lutheran University. So, I can finish up my bachelor’s degree and get a few masters classes for free. This is everything to me right now as I am not working and have not been able to since 2017 and my second run in with cancer. After that I lost everything in the Woolsey Fires, and in 2020 I decided to go back to school full time during the pandemic being immunocompromised. As a first-generation college student with financial need this was scary, but I got a scholarship from California Lutheran University. I studied immunity, neuroscience, mycology, herbalism, naturopathy, and soil science since then alongside my degree in marketing with certificates in marketing, business, and entrepreneurship. Safety and efficacy are a primary focus as a current life-coach. My side studies have given me the knowledge to fight for our fellow spores. I do believe in natural healing from the knowledge of fungi, while noticing how all my studies tie together with fungi being the common denominator. Dedicating myself to getting policy changed and being an advocate for the microorganisms that do not have a voice while fighting the current agricultural model for the benefit of human health. Presently I freelance for a marketing firm called Media Buy Agency as an investigative researcher for sales copy to generate leads to disperse to law firms doing mass tort cases against companies who cause people harm, making sure the victim gets paid. I researched aided in the case against J&J's Talc to be taken off the shelf. We oversee some of the biggest mass tort cases including all of the Sothern California wildfires and big pharma. All I do is research right now and prove my facts. Especially in a time like this, let’s say I have been extra busy. I have the privilege of saying that my work aided in the removal of harmful and often deadly products off the consumer shelves. One I am proud to say that after learning of the harmful effects when I was 16 years old, it felt extremely fulfilling to be able to be on the campaign to get TALC off the market from Johnson & Johnson's baby powder. I want to hold the companies accountable due to the current atrocities some corporations are perpetually allowed to get away with. The human life the corporations are allowed to dismiss is sickening to me and I want to fight for the lives lost to the end without settling. I feel I can make a real difference, especially having firsthand experience in cleaning up the mess that is made is poor policy in place to prevent such disasters and preserve life. Currently I work with select clientele Certified Health and Transformation coach with certifications in: NLP, REBT, CBT, Hypnotherapy, Yoga, and relationships and helping people heal the neural pathways in response to trauma within the brain. This has been a lifelong passion and journey for me. I have my own theories of ways to heal the brain, but current policy stops the general population from healing. I would like to change that. I want to make sure the soil is amended, that food security is a tangible thing for everyone, energy can be free, along with education. With enough policy we can change human health as a whole and make sure carbon emissions are curbed enough to help climate change in the current earths cycle. I see policy makers making decisions based on monetary gain and not the bettering of human life. I see governments taking advantage of the uneducated and undernourished. I see schools not feeding nutritious food and having mental disturbances that can lead to mass trauma. However, if we allow the current agriculture model to control our nation and our mental capabilities, we cannot think right on how to advance as a healthy society, and I would love to change that. As I have taken a vow of poverty as a second-generation minister of an earth stewardship church, I know I cannot be bought. That is what policy is needing right now. Someone who will not allow big pharma to buy their way into my choices on policy and human health. The revolving door has to stop and I intent to do just that.