I am an accessible travel writer, travel agent, author, entrepreneur, and disability rights advocate. I am also a service-disabled US Air Force veteran, full-time wheelchair user, single mother, and the former Ms. Wheelchair USA 2016. I was diagnosed in 2005 with multiple sclerosis (MS), and since becoming a full-time wheelchair user in 2014, I have visited 44 countries—34 of those solo.
I am the founder of the award-winning Spin the Globe accessible travel blog, on which I share my adventures traveling around the world in a power wheelchair. I focus on the wheelchair accessibility of my destinations, encouraging fellow wheelchair users to explore the world. Spin the Globe is the winner of the 2018 Bronze Award for Best Travel Blog from both the Society of American Travel Writers and the North American Travel Journalists Association. My accessible travel writing has been featured in The New York Times, New Mobility magazine, Lonely Planet, and the Matador Travel Network, and I have published two accessible travel photography books.
In August 2017, I established my accessible travel agency (Spin the Globe/Travel), where I am making accessible travel dreams come true for a rapidly growing client base. I made over $100,000 in gross sales in only my second year as a Travel Advisor, and won the 2018 Social Media Pro award from my host agency, Nexion Travel Group. I was also the runner-up for the American Society of Travel Advisor’s 2019 Travel Advisor of the Year Award, and Spin the Globe/Travel was awarded Best Accessible Outbound Travel Agency 2019 - South East USA by the United Kingdom’s LUX Life Global Hospitality awards.
For the last fourteen years, I have been a subject matter expert on Mexico’s drug war and border security, and currently write analyses for American Military University’s InHomeland Security blog. I’m a frequent guest on major media outlets, providing interviews for CNN, MSBNC, FOX News, NBC Nightly News, and more. I have been a guest expert on The History Channel’s Brad Meltzer’s Decoded and America’s War on Drugs, and have also consulted for producers of the National Geographic Channel’s Border Wars and Drugs, Inc. series. I’m the author of two books on these issues: Cartel: The Coming Invasion of Mexico’s Drug Wars (Palgrave, 2011) and Border Insecurity: While Big Money, Fences, and Drones Aren’t Making Us Safer (Palgrave, 2014).
I’m particularly proud to be the founder and President of The PreJax Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that provides scholarships to exceptional students who either have MS or a parent with MS. I’m a vocal advocate for disability rights in my community, and I was presented with the Beverly Chapman Legacy Award in June 2019 by the Central Florida Chapter of the Center for Independent Living. I’m a proud single mother to two amazing boys—my favorite travel partners—and reside in Sanford, Florida.
