Amelia was born and raised in Georgia and has lived in several states across the US as an adult, including Tennessee, New York, Arkansas, Connecticut and Missouri. Amelia and her husband Mike moved from Kansas City to Portland in 2007, started a family, and have never looked back.

A desire to work with children and an interest in communication initially brought Amelia to the field of Speech-Language Pathology. While working towards a Master’s degree in Communication Sciences at Vanderbilt University, Amelia was drawn to medical settings. After completing her M.S., she worked with stroke, head injury, and cancer survivors in hospitals and rehabilitation centers for 10 years. Shifting her focus to disease prevention, Amelia went back to graduate school to study Public Health, receiving an MPH from Yale University in 2003. She worked at the University of Kansas Medical Center managing NIH-funded cancer prevention research studies, and later transitioned into working in development for a non-profit Latino arts and mental health organization in Kansas City. After moving to Portland, she returned to Speech-Language Pathology as an outpatient therapist at OHSU.

Amelia believes strongly in community building through volunteerism. She also believes that creativity, human connections and adventure are the heart of life. In her spare time, Amelia enjoys gardening, hiking, camping, reading, traveling and attending her children’s many sporting events.