Meet the Instructor Trainers

I was amazed at their proficiency in the water. After my youngest child was born, I enrolled her in a survival swim program. I loved the results that my own children experienced. In 2004, I made the decision to become a survival swim instructor.

I started my program out of my home pool. The program grew rapidly and within 5 years had begun to outgrow my backyard pool. In 2012, my husband and I opened the Texas Swim Academy in Katy, Texas. It is a 6-pool indoor facility. We train over 2500 children each year in swimming and aquatic safety and employ over 30 people in our community. In 2013, I trained and became a Lead Instructor with a survival swim program. In 2016, with a team of like-minded instructors, I formed the Survival Swim Development Network. We sought to develop a child-centered, gentle approach to survival swimming. As a founding member, I have trained over 20 instructors in the lifesaving method. At Texas Swim Academy, I offer intensive in-water training as well as academic information to enable instructors to teach the Swim Float Survive℠ program. Additionally, I offer the Texas Swim Academy stroke development curriculum, Adaptive Aquatics for children with special abilities, training for groups, and other specialty programs.

In 1998, I brought the program to Atlanta, Georgia. The demand for survival swimming lessons grew each year. In 2001, I became a founding member and Master Instructor for Infant Aquatic, Swim Float Survive. My passion for saving children from drowning increased and so did my business. It became essential to open my own facility to meet the demand for my survival and learn-to-swim programs. We now teach school-age children and adults as well as infants and toddlers.

Over the past 35 years, I have taught thousands of children not just to swim but to save their lives in the case of an aquatic accident. Since moving to Atlanta, I have incorporated an intensive in-water training program for both instructor trainees and our students consisting of behavioral techniques, reinforced with love, kindness, and a solid direction, and a logical approach to teaching all ages life-saving skills of swimming.

I have taught 50+ instructors to teach these amazing skills as well as authored the Survival Swim Development Network’s training manual. As a Master Swim Float Survive℠ instructor and a mother that has lost a child, my mission, and passion, is teaching children how to save themselves from drowning as well as saving other parents the heartache of losing a child needlessly.

It still both humbles and brings me immense joy to watch my students’ pride in themselves when they succeed. They not only learn self-rescue skills they learn life skills and to never give up!

My mom was my second employee and is still a swim teacher for us today.  My husband Brian was a business major in college and was always contributing to the business, but after coaching and teaching for years he joined the business full time in 2013 and is now our CEO and runs all dry side operations.

The way I think about kids comes from the way I was raised and having a mom that was incredibly in tune with 4 crazy kids. I also majored in early childhood education and family studies at Oklahoma Christian University. I have a deep love for people and especially kids.

Teaching survival swim lessons has been one of my greatest joys in life because I get to be a part of something bigger than myself. On a daily basis, we get to see a child become more confident in themselves and their abilities, while a parent sits poolside showing sighs of relief seeing their own child prove they have the skills to survive if they were to fall in the water.  Being in 1 on 1 lessons allows us to stay in tune with our kids and find those teachable moments to help them be brave enough to conquer a fear or gain an essential piece of the survival skill puzzle. I am still impressed that kids can learn to swim before they are potty trained; the swim-float-swim method is truly amazing!

I began my lifelong commitment to the education of water safety when my nephew, Eddy, first came into our family. I wanted to give him a gift that he would actually be able to use and enjoy, not just for a few months but one that would last a little longer. Having been raised in South Florida & grown up in an active, water sports family, I knew firsthand the importance of safety in and around the water from a very early age. Knowing my nephew would be exposed to the same water activities I grew up with, I couldn’t think of a better gift than the lifelong skill of being able to swim. Thus, I began to look into different swim schools in order to see what they could offer my then, 8-month-old nephew. Much to my surprise, there were not many schools that taught infants. I was offered parent/tot classes and water orientation classes; I was told that he needed to be at least 3 years old and I was even told by one school that children under the age of 3 could not learn how to swim. I was surprised, to say the least, because I learned to swim before I learned how to walk. But I listened to what they had to say & observed some of the actual classes being taught. The only thing I witnessed were some kids attempting to learn how to get to the edge of the pool by an instructor putting them in a swimming position, guiding them to the edge from about 3-4 feet away, and yelling “kick, kick, kick, kick, kick” while in motion. To make a long story short, I was not content with what I saw because to me, it simply wasn’t good enough. What if Eddy crawled onto the dock of my family’s home in the Keys & fell into the water? There is no edge there. What would he do? I didn’t give up the search for what I wanted & months later I was very fortunate to find an instructor with expertise in teaching aquatic survival to infants. I was so captivated and utterly mesmerized by what I witnessed in our initial meeting that I immediately enrolled my nephew in what I know was a life-changing experience for both him & me. Eddy’s newly acquired ability to go from a swimming position to a floating position on his own, without the assistance of an adult, and back to a swimming position in sequence left me speechless & with tears of joy. I don’t know exactly what happened to me during the course of his training but it motivated me to make a total career change and join the crusade to protect our children from preventable drownings.

My initial training consisted of over 320 hours of hands-on, in-water training in infant aquatic survival. I also have a Red Cross W.S.I. certification in swim instruction as well as certifications in the Fundamentals of Instructor Training, Lifeguard Training and First Aid, Preventing Disease Transmission, CPR for the Professional Rescuer, Oxygen Administration for the Professional Rescuer, and AED Essentials. Furthermore, I continued my education by obtaining an additional certification to teach special needs children via the Marino Swim Central Adaptive Aquatics program and by attending annual conferences and seminars nationally and internationally.

Born 2 Swim is also a member of the United States Swim School Association (USSSA), the World Aquatics Babies Congress (WABC), Infant Aquatics, the National Drowning Prevention Alliance (NDPA), the Swim For Life Foundation’s “Safer 3” Initiative and the Mothers for Water Safety Coalition.