Hi, I’m D, and I prefer they/them/she pronouns. I am a nonbinary person with lived experience in mental health and addiction. I am in active and sustained recovery which means to me that I am in a place where I can provide a safe and supportive environment for others as they explore their own unique journey in recovery, however they define that for themselves. I have experienced addiction that put me through homelessness, significant loss of support systems, and a place where I had to fight for eighteen months to get my two sons back home.

Over the last decade I have discovered my passion for supporting people in active addiction. I worked at an inpatient psychiatric facility, directly with the acutely psychotic population for over seven years. There I created a verbal de-escalation training that is still used to this day. From 2020 to 2024 I found a deep-seeded passion for fighting the opioid epidemic while I worked in Denver’s largest methadone clinic. In those four years I started college to get my first bachelors, got married, and bought a house. Now I have full custody of my boys and continue to explore this weird experience that is sober adulthood. I am living proof that we do recover.

While attending Metropolitan State University of Denver I have graduated as a Health Scholar, a student assistant for a Colorado Department of Health Education scholarship and workshop program, a Health Institute Peer Leader and was a winner of the second Reimagine Wellness Pitch at MSU Denver. During my Reimagine Wellness semester, I learned more about Peer Recovery Coaches and the incredible work they do. Through MSU and my own personal networking superpowers, I learned about AFRC and am ecstatic to be a part of an organization whose mission so closely aligns with my own.

Born in Durango, Colorado and raised near the flatirons, I grew up as a skiing, soccer-playing, horse rancher that was attending every non-profit event at the heels of my mom during her advocacy work in the community. Cleaning stalls and sweeping chimneys with my dad gave me the foundation for solid work ethic, and hanging out with my nerdy sister added the spicy Marvel/DC, Star Wars, Star Trek and Lord of the Rings embodiment of awkward that is who I proudly am today. I hope to bring encouragement to others that struggle, fill empty emotional cups, and have a lot of fun and dorky conversations while still being a force of advocacy growing in the Aspen grove of AFRC.