Some people see public service as something they do for a season. I've always believed it's a way of living.

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Whether serving in uniform, advocating for veterans, helping draft Utah's medical cannabis law, volunteering in my community, or serving my neighbors closer to home, one idea has remained constant throughout my life: our communities are strongest when ordinary people step forward and serve something larger than themselves.

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The Air Force has three core values: Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence in All We Do. All three remain a core ethos in my life, but of those three, "Service Before Self" has stayed with me long after I hung up the uniform. It isn't about sacrificing your own worth. It's about understanding that leadership is a responsibility, not a privilege. It means putting the mission, the community, and the people you serve ahead of your own ambition.

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That principle has shaped every chapter of my life.

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Military service gave me my first opportunity to live those values. After serving for more than a decade in the United States Air Force, the Utah Air National Guard, and the Utah Army National Guard, I carried those same lessons into veterans advocacy, patient rights, nonprofit leadership, local community service, and now this campaign for the Utah House.

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I've never believed service ends when your military career does. It simply takes a different form.

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Throughout my career, I served as a military journalist, photographer, writer, media liaison, Public Affairs and strategic communicator. My responsibility was to take complicated operations, policies, and decisions and translate them into language people could understand. Whether covering humanitarian missions, training exercises, leadership decisions, or community partnerships, the goal was always the same: communicate clearly, accurately, and honestly.

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That work taught me lessons I carry with me today. Trust is earned through transparency. People deserve leaders who explain their decisions, answer difficult questions, and respect the intelligence of those they serve. Government should never feel like something happening behind closed doors. In a democracy, public trust depends on an informed public.

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Those lessons have guided me ever since.

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They shaped my work advocating for veterans. They guided my role on the team that drafted Proposition 2 and helped develop the Utah Medical Cannabis Act. They continue to influence how I serve my neighbors, how I approach policy, and why I'm running for the Utah House.

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I've worn different uniforms throughout my life. Sometimes they were military. Sometimes they were the less visible uniforms of advocacy, community organizing, and public service.

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The uniform changes– The mission doesn't.

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Service Before Self isn't simply an Air Force core value. It's the principle that has guided my life, and it's the kind of representative I intend to be.