"Watch your thoughts they become words, watch your words they become action, watch your actions they become character, watch your character it becomes your destiny"......

I grew up in Milford, New Jersey near the Delaware River. I was water-skiing at the age of 5 and started running long distances with my dad when I was nine. Throughout high school, I was an honor roll student as well as an athlete competing in track and field, cross-country and basketball. I attended a two-year college in Pennsylvania for television/film communications and journalism.

In 1989, I was tired of bartending and cocktail waitressing so I moved overseas to pursue a more glamorous career- as a model/actress. I figured Paris was as good a place as any to start. I studied French and French history at La Sorbonne while going on auditions. I was told by agents that I was “too muscular”, my “hips were too big” and so on, but regardless I always got jobs and worked for magazines such as Marie Claire and Elle as well as acted in a bunch of commercials. I never stopped working out or running. I also never stopped moving. Over the course of seven years, I lived in almost every arrondissement in Paris, Hamburg, London and Milan and traveled to Australia, Kenya, South Africa and all over Europe for work.

I moved to New York in 1995 where I started co-hosting the show “Men’s Journal on ESPN”. The show took me throughout the US where I was required to rock climb, fly fish, scuba dive, white water kayak and canoe, mountain bike and ride horses (just to name a few). After the show went off the air (but not before finishing two NYC marathons), I moved to Los Angeles. A dream of mine, ever since I saw coverage of the Raid Gauloises race in France, was to compete in an adventure race. In 1997, I got the chance to compete in and complete my first adventure race, New Zealand’s “Southern Traverse”. That was a turning point in my life…I believed I could do anything. In 1998, I was part of a two-person support crew for Andy Petranek’s team that competed in the Raid Gauloises in Ecuador. I continued to do sprint adventure races and mini triathlons as well as hosted The Outdoor Life Network’s “Gear Guide”. I also hosted shows for Discovery and co-produced and hosted the show “Wild Women Outdoors” for Artemis Productions and “Racing the Southern Traverse” for OLN. In 1999 I traveled through India, Tibet and Nepal covering the Raid Gauloises for the Outdoor Life Network and when I wasn’t hosting, I was auditioning for jobs in film or television, working on Just Shoot Me, Chicago Hope, It’s Like You Know and the movie Beautiful to name a few.

In 2002, I auditioned for an on-camera reporter position at Fox Sports and got it. I had an amazing job covering the Angels during the 2002 World Series season, and I was one of Fox’s main Mighty Ducks correspondents during the 2003 playoffs. I followed the Lakers throughout the 2003 season and in my first year; I won an Emmy for “outstanding sports reporting in Los Angeles”. I went into early retirement from Fox (after the birth of my daughter, Sydney), having earned six Emmy nominations and one statue in just 14 months. I then became a full time mom and reconnected with Andy Petranek in 2004 to get the baby fat off and get back in shape. I, now can not imagine my life without Crossfit and I can’t help but think that if I had had Crossfit back in high school….well, who knows what I could have accomplished! I am a certified CrossFit instructor and continue to Crossfit 4-6 days a week. It’s become a family obsession as both my daughter and husband do Crossfit as well.

I am also program director for The Next Right Thing. We are a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting children from resource-poor countries in medical need with people who can help. We assist with medical costs for in-country treatment or submit the case to doctors and hospitals that provide life-changing medical treatment free of charge in the US. In the case of children accepted for treatment in the US, we assist with passport, visa, and travel expenses. We have no paid staff and all supplies and services are donated. Our children have been featured on the Today Show, CNN.com and Oprah.
www.next-right-thing.org
www.petranek fitness.com