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About Me

I am 51 years old and have a unique history... I graduated UC Davis as a Design student, using my creative talents to design everything from wedding dresses to teddy bears. While at UCD, I enjoyed swimming, cycling, tube water polo, tennis, weight lifting, square dancing, snow & water skiing, jogging, flag football, golf, social dance and Tai Kwon Do. In addition to my studies and athletic training, I designed costumes for the campus theater. I was recruited by a major dept. store in Seattle into retail management and found it to be an unrewarding career after giving it a year. In my search for something more meaningful, I returned to Davis and worked in administration at the Med. School. During this time, I found myself drawn to a firefighting career which turned out to be a good match for me. I am 5'11" and have always remained fit doing some type of sport. I was a member of the Davis Athletic Club and began to lift free weights with the cops who trained there. I also began to meet some of the local triathletes and became more serious about my cycling and swimming. I did century rides, aerobic step courses, swam and lifted free weights to work on my upper body strength. I helped to form a Woman's Firefighting Muster Team out of Davis and competed with my team all over CA. I met my former firefighting/winemaker husband at a Muster and moved to the Napa Valley. We started Dusinberre Cellars and I found myself immersed in the wine biz, with our wines served in the White House! I continued as a paid-call firefighter, and became an elite teddy bear artist. I also helped to raise two step daughters and began coaching the Cheerleaders at our local HS which I did for 10 years. I became a Level IV Certified Coach of a stunting team through the NCA. The greatest joy I have experienced to date, was giving birth to my now 15 yr. old daughter, Ashley. When she was 5, I began coaching her soccer team and did that for 3 years until she switched to gymnastics. When Ashley was 7, I became a single mom and returned to school to pursue a teaching credential with the dream of teaching in our local school. My dream was realized a couple years ago in an unforeseen way when I was hired as the Elem. PE Teacher in my town. I was hired on the merit of my local coaching experience and personal athletic pursuits. This year, CA teaching regulations tightened and I was requested to apply for a Limited Assignment Permit to continue to teach Elem. PE. I had planned to move into a classroom teaching position more in-line with my credential, only to find excellent teachers being laid off due to budget cuts. I accepted the half-day PE position to "get my foot in the door" and found that I love teaching PE to kids!

History

Member for

2 years 29 weeks