Born and raised in Missoula Montana, I did not fully appreciate how special my hometown was until I left for college. I graduated from Wheaton College in 2002 with a BA in Political Science and a minor concentration in Chemistry. I rowed for the Wheaton Crew team all four years at Wheaton and was the rowing captain in my junior and senior years. After Wheaton, I taught English in China for two years before coming back to Wheaton to work for its center for leadership development. After earning a MA at Wheaton, I worked for another leadership development organization for several years in the Wheaton area. In 2018 I moved back to Missoula to attend law school earning my JD in 2021. During law school, I worked as a legal intern for a law firm in Missoula and did my clinical work at the Veterans Advocacy Clinic. After graduation, I worked at the law firm I interned with for a couple more years until starting Elsen Law in 2023.