about me
My Roots Run Deep in District 17 – I’m an 8th generation West Virginian and native of my district. I graduated from Wahama High School, and went on to Marshall University earning my Bachelor’s and Master’s in Secondary Education and Education Leadership Studies, respectively. Our Dad began working when he was 14 to help support his family and was the first ever in his family to graduate from high school. He then went on to retire as a GS-13 from the United States Department of Agriculture, we learned the value of a hard day’s work from him. Our Mom was a teacher for 37 years and she instilled in us the importance of education for all. Unfortunately, our Dad developed ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) in December 2023 and died December 31, 2024. Our Mom unexpectedly died eight days later, from what we believe was a broken heart. Today, I live in New Haven, just a block away from where I grew up, with my husband Tyler, our children Henry and Harrison, our dogs Marshall and Eleanor, and cats Walter and Jack.
My maternal grandparents, John and Mary Alderson, moved to Ravenswood in the late 1950s from Nicholas County when Kaiser Aluminum opened, like so many families chasing the promise of a good union job. PopPop John spent decades serving Ravenswood—first on the city council, then as mayor. He grew up poor during the Depression and he never forgot where he came from. He fought for working families because he’d been one himself. He was the person who first sparked my interest in government and politics and we were fortunate enough to serve as Senate Pages for his friend Senator Bob Dittmar. I’ve been around West Virginia politics and government my entire life.
