There is longevity in my family. Most of my relatives live into their hundreds. Knowing this, and being 51 years old, gives me some hope that I can still make my life into something positive and meaningful, despite going to prison.
My oldest daughter recently said, “Mom, you realize you’re going to always win two truths and a lie, now, right?” She, like me, has tried to use humor to navigate through this new chapter in our lives. That ice breaking game has been utilized in many organizations and social gatherings, and never have I ever thought I would be offering that as an option to that question. I say OUR lives, because this prison sentence hasn’t just affected me. It has impacted my husband, children, family and friends, as well as those in the medical community that I have worked for and with over the years.
I am writing this biography exactly 7 weeks before I report to the Lexington, KY Prison Camp. Typing those words still seems surreal to me, as this is not at all the path I thought my life would take. I was born in Birmingham, Alabama, but grew up in Virginia and Ohio. My memories of my childhood are scattered at best, as I went through EMDR therapy for PTSD in my thirties. My best memories of my childhood were spent in Canada with my grandmother and cousins in the summers. My grandmother was the most influential person in my life as a child and as an adult, and she passed away at 106 a couple years ago. She served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during WWII as a surgical tech, and then obtained her nursing degree later in life. Like her, I joined the USAF right after high school, to be a medic. MOS- 90240, working as an EMT and medic serving mostly out of Scott AFB, IL during Operation Desert Storm.
My entire professional career has been within healthcare. I have worked in clinical, operational, population health, consultative, care management and community health facets within the healthcare market, with a desire to be of service and make the world around me a better place. For the past three years, I have been serving patients with substance use disorders and the unhoused “homeless” patient populations as a community health worker, as well as focusing on the opioid and housing crisis in Southwest Ohio. I have obtained a Mental Health First Aid certification and want to continue my work in community health once released from prison. I currently am receiving treatment myself for PTSD from the VA, and hopeful my healing, support and message can inspire other veterans to get the mental health support they need as well.
My husband is the love of my life. He and I attended the same high school, but our circles didn’t cross until my 20th high school reunion. We both have children from prior marriages, and between the two of us, we have 7 amazing “kids” who are now adults. Our marriage didn’t start out traditionally, as I lived in Nebraska, and he in Ohio. We would travel once a month to spend a week or long weekend together, as not to interrupt our children’s lives and force cohabitation with new siblings on them or pull them away from our previous spouses. This sacrifice we made for our children I believe helped them see how much we supported and loved them, and I am grateful we chose to do this for them for the first 8 years of our relationship. Each of our children are unique in their own ways, but collectively are my greatest blessing. The most challenging part I believe for me while in prison will be being apart from my family. I am used to seeing/speaking with them every day via several communication channels. Just thinking about it gives me anxiety of what’s to come.
I obtained a nursing degree while serving in the Air Force, as well as a bachelor’s in health administration and policy and organizational communications. I also obtained my master’s degree in organizational leadership. My hope for these degrees was to be able to teach physicians what medical school does not. Population Health Strategies, Care management, Quality Reporting, the Business of the Private Practice Setting and more. I was privileged enough to assist many medical teams within hospitals, medical clinics, start up organizations, and more over the years navigate the ever-changing health care world, and did so with one goal in mind- to make this world a better place, one step at a time.
My plan with writing these journal entries, journal entries, and book reports is not only to reflect on what led me to becoming an inmate at a federal prison camp, but to hopefully help others see how not make the same mistakes I made. Additionally, while incarcerated, my plan is to complete two books I am writing. One, is for physicians, of which the proceeds for this book will hopefully pay back my restitution, as well as help physicians navigate the business of practice management, so they can protect themselves from fraud, and have better patient outcomes. The other book has a culinary focus, to assist with the work I am currently doing in community health, serving the homeless populations and those with substance use disorders. Two years ago, before I was even indicted with a felony, I had presented my plan to open a restaurant for those unhoused, and partner with other community health resources to get people the resources they need for housing, food, mental health and substance use disorders. My dream is to be able to continue this work, as this is the first time in a very long time that I have felt like my life has meaning and purpose.
My hope for those subscribing and following along with my journal entries is that you can find something inspirational, relatable, or even something to make you realize that your plans can change in an instant. After all, what happens when you tell God your plans? They laugh.
