So, ya want to find out a little bit about me, huh? Here goes..

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I'm a gay second-generation Hispanic/Latino/Mexican-American (whatever, aren't labels FUN?) =) Waukesha, WI native now living in the city of New Berlin, WI with my partner of 10 years and our two cats - Mocha and Belle. Mocha is a spunky black short-haired furrball who like most cats likes to cause his share of mischief, mainly when we are not around. Belle, my partner's cat, is a beautiful gray/white long-haired brat who doesn't wait until we're gone to get herself in trouble.. :)

I grew up in Waukesha and attended Prairie and Randall elementary schools, Central Middle School, and graduated in 1992 from South High School.

Right after high school, I moved to Milwaukee for college. I went to MSOE for two years and then transferred to UWM. I graduated in May, 1997 with a Bachelors of Science in Applied Science in Computer Science and a minor in Linguistics (Check out my list of speech recognition resources which was part of some independent study work relating the two). Right out of high school I became an INROADS/Wisconsin intern and my sponsoring company was Wisconsin Electric (now known as We Energies).

I was quite busy while I was in school! I volunteered at St. Joseph's Catholic Church with my family from middle school up until college. I coordinated the INROADS/Wisconsin Student Assocation Senate Community Service committee, tasked with organizing volunteer opportunities for INROADS interns. I helped out at Mexican Fiesta a couple years, and at PrideFest every year. I was co-president of the GLBC at UWM (now the People Like Us (PLUS) at UWM). During my time with GLBC we held a Speaker's Series, Awareness Weeks, and National Coming Out Day celebrations. As a former board member of the Human Rights League for Lesbians and Gays (and in coalition with the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center) I also organized a couple successful National Coming Out Day celebrations. I was thrilled to be a part of the Center's steering committee and interim board before it opened its doors in November, 1998.

Later on, I had a small role in the UWM LGBT Resource Center's initial advisory committee, the Milwaukee Fire & Police Commission's task force on lesbian and gay issues in the workplace, and the Milwaukee LGBT Funding Partnership advisory committee. I served as one of the four co-chairs of the Milwaukee Host Committee for the 2001 National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Creating Change Conference. In January, 2002, my close friend Carmen Alicia Murguia founded the Juana G. Vega Resource Center for LGBT Latinas/os and I co-founded. We established the organization in memory of Milwaukee Latina Lesbian Juana G. Vega, killed by her ex-girlfriend's brother the night of November 10, 2001. In 2006 I volunteered for Fair Wisconsin.

I'm still at We and involved in the community. In the community, I volunteer when I can. At We Energies, I work full time in the Fossil Operations department's FO Business Unit IT team. I am a member of the Gay and Lesbian Organization at We Energies and the Latinos Unidos Council at We Energies.