I was blessed to be born and raised in a military family with four brothers and sisters. While I was born on a U.S. military base in France, I mainly grew up on the East Coast in N.J. and VA. A couple years after Dad retired, our family moved to California and settled in Sacramento. My father is a WWII Navy Veteran (enlisted) and Vietnam War Army Veteran (officer). He turns 100 years old in April, 2024. I earned a B.S. degree in Counseling/Psychology from San Diego Christian College (formerly Christian Heritage College), and an M.S. degree in Rehabilitation Counseling/Emphasis in Deafness Rehab from San Diego State University (SDSU). I have been fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) for more than 35 years and possess over 25 years of professional experience within the vocational rehabilitation industry. My focus has been serving individuals with severe disabilities, both mental and physical, supporting them in moving toward financial independence. I am a former Certified Disability Benefits Planner through the SSA. My passion is counseling individuals who are either on SSI and/or SSDI, helping them enter/re-enter the workforce, or providing them guidance in starting their own business. As “destiny” would have it, I was awarded SSDI benefits in 2020. Due to my medical condition, I have demonstrated to be unable to consistently work for a traditional employer. However, having offered career coaching to 100s of clients in the past, I decide to start my own Coaching business, called Shofar Consulting Services. I have known Coach Rae for almost 10 years and decided to partner with FC4U, and now serve as a Licensed Financial Coach in collaboration with her team. In addition, I have the privilege of collaborating with Coach Rae on a weekly basis by serving as the Vice Chair of the Veterans’ Chamber of Commerce/San Diego and the Operations Director of Global Financial Literacy.