Over 100 years ago my grandparents settled on a farm between the towns of Joes and Cope on the eastern plains of Colorado, where my mother was born and raised. After she met my father, they moved to Denver, where I grew up. I graduated from John F. Kennedy High School and received a BA degree from Rockmont college (now Colorado Christian University) in 1974.

For the past 37 years I have owned and operated a media and video production service. It was my privilege to serve on the Board of Trustees for Colorado Christian University for many years, and to help found Christian Home Educators of Colorado in 1990.

Government has been a strong interest for me for all of my adult life. I was chosen to participate in the Colorado Republican Leadership Program in 2000. In that same year, Governor Owens appointed me to serve on the Colorado Commission on Family Medicine. Two and a half years later I was elected to the Colorado House, where I served until, in 2009, I was appointed to a vacancy in the Colorado State Senate. In 2010 I was elected to my first full term in the Senate and reelected for a second term in 2014.

With a deep love for our beautiful state, I have backpacked all across the Colorado Rockies, including a 700 mile trek along the Continental Divide. In 1997 I fulfilled a lifetime dream of building a solar and wind powered home, which we continue to live in today.