About your candidate
I was born and raised in south central Kansas. I left Kansas to join the United States Navy, and served on the USS Arctic AOE 8, stationed out of Earle, NJ. After leaving the Navy, I moved back to Kansas where I attended Wichita State University. I graduated in 2009 with a BS in Nursing and later completed my MBA in Healthcare Administration. The majority of my nursing career has been in Emergency Medicine.
I moved to Castle Rock, CO in 2012 where I continue to live. I am a husband of 22 years and a father of 5. I take being a father very seriously and consider it to be my most important job. I work hard everyday to ensure that I am instilling a core set of values in each of my children, just as I did from my mother and grandparents. I also work hard at ensuring that I am a father my kids will grow up being proud of.
Values Inspired by Family
I was raised in a single parent home where my mother worked very hard to provide for the two of us. Along with the help of my grandparents, she raised me to believe in hard work, kindness, servant leadership, and humility. My mother worked 12 hour shifts as an air ambulance dispatch operator. She took me to my grandparents early each morning in order to go to work. Just like other single parents, she faced many of the same challenges we see in our society today.
Although she worked long hours at a respectable job, she still barely made enough to keep a roof over our heads, let alone feed and clothe me. She would stand in long lines monthly at our local CO-OP in order to receive commodities such as; cheese, peanut butter, powdered milk and canned meat. Somehow, she made this work for us. I have to tell you, her BBQ’d pork and grilled cheese sandwiches are some of the best memories I have from back then. The powdered milk you can keep. I am thankful every day that she had that community service to rely on. I am not sure how we would have made it each month without it.
Values in Action
Even though she worked hard for very little, my mom
still found it in her to give back to her community. Along
with my grandmother and aunts, my mother volunteered
for our local EMS as an emergency technician. I find a great sense of pride knowing that their photos hang in memoriam in the city museum, honoring their years of service. I also know that they had a hand in growing that same service
to the large platform it is today. I truly believe that it was their hard work and volunteering that led me to feeling the urgency
to serve my country and later become a nurse.
My mother and grandparents may not have had much,
but I believe that what they lacked in money and material objects, they more than made up for in values. I would not be the man that I am today without seeing their values in action as a child. My grandpa loved baseball and spent hours in our backyard teaching me how to catch and throw a ball. He would always tell me to “point your toe, where you want the ball to go”. I use this same thought towards my philosophy in life. Whatever it is that I need to accomplish, I aim where I want to go, put my best foot forward, throw hard and get where I need to go.
Leadership Inspired by Values
I want to do the same for my fellow citizens. I want to get us all where we want to go and be. I want to show you that same hard work, humility, and fortitude that my mother and grandparents emulated for me.
I will do the same for you and serve you with a sense of reverence, honesty, and responsibility.