My Story
My sobriety date is June 26, 2000 — the same day I went to prison. Alcohol had taken me to the lowest moment of my life, and to a choice I'll carry forever. Getting clean is what saved me, and it has been the foundation of everything since.
I served 17 years. Behind those walls I did the hardest and most important work of my life: I got sober, earned a college degree — graduating as valedictorian — and learned to write code through The Last Mile inside San Quentin. I found running there too, finishing two marathons in the yard — 105 laps at a time. I walked out in 2017 with a craft and a purpose, and started my software career within weeks.
A decade into that career, the work closest to my heart is Fitness Monkey — a recovery-and-fitness app I first dreamed up inside San Quentin and am finally building for real, to help people pair sobriety with fitness. It will always be free to people coming home through The Last Mile. I speak about what I've lived — recovery, incarceration and reentry, technology, and the partnerships that change lives — and I still go back inside San Quentin to coach the 1000 Mile Club. I walked this path; now I help build the ladder for the people still on it.
