My background is in education. I graduated from Capital University with a degree in Secondary Education, with a concentration in mathematics and science, and I spent years in the classroom before life asked something different of me.
When Aaron deployed following September 11th, I made the decision to step away from teaching to raise and homeschool our children, Adam and Aubrey. That season shaped me more than I expected. It required discipline, intentionality, and a willingness to take seriously the things that most people leave to chance. Those same qualities turned out to be exactly what financial planning demands.
While Aaron was serving, we were also building something together at home. We studied markets, learned to evaluate investments, and worked deliberately toward a financial future that we controlled. By the time we founded AWard and Associates in 2016, I had spent years applying the same structured thinking I once brought to a classroom to the challenge of building real financial security for our family. Becoming licensed that year felt like a natural extension of the work I had already been doing.
That teaching instinct carried directly into this work. What matters most to me is that clients genuinely understand their financial plan, not just that they have signed off on it. There is a meaningful difference between the two, and I have seen what happens when that gap goes unaddressed.
Aaron and I lead Bible studies together, and our faith shapes the way we approach this work and the people we do it with. When I am not in the office, I am most at home outdoors with our family, or in a quiet moment of worship. This firm carries our name because it carries our values. That is not something we take lightly.