The Florida scientist, whistleblower and mother who risked it all to fight corrupt government, cementing her place in history as our very own Florida heroine.

​Growing up in southern Mississippi, my family of six struggled to put food on the table every single month. My parents, proud of the hard work they put in every day, worked two, sometimes three jobs at a time to make ends meet - and sometimes those ends were not met. We never owned a home. We spent periods living with family when we couldn't afford the rent. We sometimes went hungry.

My mom and dad didn't have the opportunity to earn a college degree and our frequent moving from one house to another, along with the trailing natural disasters that seemed to follow us everywhere, made life rough.