BIO
- B.A. ’21, MFA ’25, Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences
- Class of 2025 commencement speaker
- Author and podcast host Speak Up Against Stigma
- Chief executive officer, Written Hope Publishing
Eight years ago, I was depressed and suicidal. I was so suicidal that I burned my house down with me in it because I wanted to die.
I’m grateful that I did not die that day. But I was arrested and sent to the county jail for thirty days. All this happened while I was an undergraduate student here at The University of Baltimore. While in jail, a guard quietly slid a pen and paper across the table. I took it, not knowing what I would write. One page turned into two. Then three. Before I knew it, I had a stack of paper filled with emotions I had never released, not even in therapy.
That pen saved my life.
The moment I was released, I ran to UBalt to change my major from business, which seemed right at one time. Now, I just needed to understand what had just happened to me on those pages, so I switched to English. It was in my first memoir class that I discovered the power of storytelling and how my willingness to share my truth could help others.
Unlike many of my peers, I did not grow up reading books that sparked creativity, so I had to work twice as hard at my craft just to keep up with the talented writers in my class. Despite all that hard work, my GPA had suffered due to everything I had gone through, and I didn’t think a master’s program would accept me after graduation. However, I took the risk and applied to the Creative Writing & Publishing Arts program at the University of Baltimore, hoping to write a memoir. When I was accepted, I cried like a baby.
I had a publishing class, where I had to recreate a paperback book from scratch, from the cover to the interior design. When the printed copy landed in my hands, something clicked. I fell in love with the process, the texture, the feeling of turning an idea into something real. I earned more than a grade; that class handed me the blueprint for something bigger. That one assignment sparked the creation of my own anthology series, Speak Up Against Stigma. I leveraged twenty years of entrepreneurial experience and launched what is now known as Written Hope Publishing.
When I began my journey at UBalt, I was broken and unsure. Today, I’m a two-time graduate. A bestselling author. The CEO of a mental health publishing company. An adjunct professor at the very university where I got my start.
UBalt didn’t just open a door.
It held it open long enough for me to walk through and claim a future I once believed I didn’t deserve.