I’m proud of the fact that I was born and raised in Upstate NY. My mother, a nurse and single parent of four worked two jobs yet we still lived paycheck-to-paycheck. At 14, I was working on the farms near our Spencerport home. Summers were spent in the orchards, picking fruit in the day and loading bushels onto trucks late into the evenings.

Growing up, I was taught that an education and helping people were priorities. So, off I went to SUNY Brockport (BS, Psychology, Summa Cum Laude) and later to Syracuse University College of Law (Go Orange!), spending summers working as a painter and carpenter. Once I earned my JD, I packed my bags and left for Washington, DC, eager to change the world as a First Amendment, public interest attorney. 
 
Soon after arriving in DC, I learned of a new telecommunications industry that was gouging consumers. I led a team that sued six of the biggest telecommunications corporations and took on six of the biggest law firms in DC. I also took the fight to Congress, where I testified before the House and Senate and worked on crafting a bipartisan bill that would reign in a consumer nightmare. A year later, I was made Executive Director of that public interest group and continued my work on First Amendment, consumer and telecommunications issues. 
 
Eventually, I answered the call of my family and came home to help my mom’s growing home care agency in Brockport. I spent more than 15 years helping our neighbors – the elderly and disabled - remain independent in their homes  out of institutions where they did not want to be. 
 
While home in Brockport, I became involved in local politics after seeing needs that were not being met. So I ran for Village Trustee and won. I worked extensively on fiscal, public safety and infrastructure issues, but after four years I decided to “term limit myself” and instead helped my neighbors who wanted to run for office.  

For the past few years, I’ve continued helping candidates that believe in the working man and woman, in bringing living wage jobs to rebuild Upstate and our country, and protecting seniors and the benefits they have earned and paid for.  Holding elected office is a public service - not a golden meal ticket, not a means to self-enrichment, and not a partisan trophy one would do or say anything to keep and maintain. It is a public trust and covenant to work for the people you represent.