She was born and reared in Boston, Massachusetts. She received her B.S. in Broadcasting & Film from Boston University. After working as producer for the City of Austin Municipal Access Channel, she left the cable television industry and entered the social service community as outreach worker, advocate and educator for various community organizations including the National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer, the Coalition for Addiction Pregnancy and Parenting, The Alliance of Young Families, Boston and the Boston Healthy Start Initiative Consortium (BHSI) which was instrumental in the landmark initiative of the development of the Infant Mortality Project.