I was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago and never met a Happy Meal or a chicken wing I didn’t like. As I began to outgrow my childhood life-threatening asthma, the effects of my eating habits became evident and I began to put on weight, a lot of weight. After many crash diets and gimmicks, I eventually lost weight in my teens by developing an eating disorder, bulimia. I was not a naturally thin person, and my life-long struggle with weight and dieting continued into my mid-twenties.

It was in 1998 while attending Stanford University, I decided to make a life change: I discovered and embraced fitness. I committed to going to the gym every day and for the first time stopped weighing myself. I stopped focusing on the results and focused on the process of embracing an active way of living. This was the last resort after a lifetime of being trapped in the crash diet death spiral. I developed a lifelong commitment and connection to fitness while also developing my career as a television executive.

Although tremendously rewarding to continue to achieve fitness milestones, my passion and mission in life, is to teach and inspire people and communities, to lead healthier and more active lives. As a formerly overweight kid from the South Side of Chicago, I am particularly sensitive to the obesity and health issues plaguing adults and our children in urban communities. To address these issues, I wanted to teach and inspire.

I believe that everyone has the ability with the right tools, social support, and inspiration to be able to connect to fitness in an emotional way and this connection will lead to long-term exercise adherence, and ultimately what we all want: happiness. My mission is to activate that ability and inspire communities across the country. To this end, leveraging my business, creative, and fitness backgrounds, I founded MAD COOL FITNESS to help people to achieve happiness through long-term good health.