Emily spent a total of twelve years in and out of the child welfare system until she aged out after receiving her high school diploma. Now her passion is working with current and former foster youth to create change and empower foster youth voices.

Emily first got involved in foster care advocacy by sharing her story through a student organization for former foster youth at her college, UNT. From there, she began to share at much bigger conferences and since then have gotten to share with lawmakers, educators, child welfare agencies, universities, schools and more. Now she shares her story to advocate whenever and wherever she can. Emily has a B.A. in Psychology and will receive her M.A. in Social Work this Spring.           

In her spare time, Emily loves to read or hang out at home watching tv with a nice glass of wine and her dog, Luna. She hopes to one day earn her Doctoral degree so that she can fulfill the goal “from foster to doctor” on the vision board she made a decade ago.