I grew up in a small town on the Colorado side of the Colorado/Kansas border along Highway 50. Not like 10,000 people small - smaller. Think less than 1,000 people in the town, and only about 100 students in the high school total. My parents raised me and my brothers to be independent and believe that there is nothing we cannot do if we put our minds to it. So, I dreamt big. After completing high school, and through earning the Daniels Fund Scholarship, I pursued a BA in Communication with an interdisciplinary study in Automotive History at McPherson College in McPherson, KS. McPherson gave me unique and fantastic opportunities - an internship at the Studebaker National Museum, a study trip in Japan, another internship at a major automotive event company in Monterey, CA, and tours of many, many car collections with the chance to meet owners, restoration professionals and celebrities. Post-graduation, I took some time to work before going back to school to earn my Master of Arts in Communication Studies at Kansas State University. I combined my knowledge of communication theories and my interest in automotive culture and uses to study the link between transportation and communication. Topics included forced car ownership, transportation deprivation and lack of pro-social participation, and rural America’s reliance on transportation for community building. I currently utilize my education as Director of Operations and Events at The Garage Automotive Museum in Salina, Kansas.
