I grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and spent my childhood in what I would later call the House of Horrors, a home defined by abandonment and abuse. I left for college on a partial athletic scholarship with nothing but the determination to build a life that looked nothing like the one I came from. And I largely succeeded. As the founder of HIRE Strategies, a North Carolina staffing and consulting firm, I grew my company to over eight million dollars in annual revenue as a single mother of three daughters. Then my oldest daughter attempted suicide three days before a Disney World trip, and the performance of having it together became impossible for me to maintain.

This crisis became the catalyst for Chasing Peace: Healing in Plain Sight, my debut memoir. Rather than heal in private, I chose to do the work in therapy, on social media, and in front of my daughters and the community already following me, and that choice became both the book's argument and its built-in audience.

I'm the founder of HIRE Strategies, a placement agency in Raleigh, NC, and also the founder of Julia's House, a nonprofit organization supporting young adults aging out of the foster care system in North Carolina.