✦The path didn't begin in graduate school.
Samantha’s experiences as a woman, U.S. Air Force veteran, mother, advocate, disability professional, student, and clinician in training each shaped how she understands people and systems. They aren't disconnected credentials. They're parts of one path.
Military service contributed to her understanding of systems, transitions, identity, stress, adaptation, and belonging. It also gave her respect for the complexity of military culture without assuming that any one veteran’s experience represents another’s.
Disability work deepened the commitment.
Professional experience alongside people with developmental disabilities reinforced Samantha’s commitment to dignity, autonomy, accessibility, meaningful participation, communication, and family involvement when appropriate.
Her experience also includes training support staff and caregivers working in group homes and disability-service settings as a DDD Article 9 Instructor, DDD Prevention and Support Instructor, and CPR/FA Trainer.
Marriage & Family Therapy brought the pieces together.
MFT gave Samantha a professional framework for something she had already come to believe: people can't be fully understood outside their relationships, families, histories, environments, communities, and larger systems.
Weyr & Roots grew from all of them.
