I'm the Western US Regional Sales Manager (Mexico, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Nevada) for Cubic Transportation Systems, Inc. for Mass Transit Fare Collections Systems and Parking Solutions. I sell multi-million dollar backend computer systems and ancillary devices, such as contactless smart card ticket vending machines, web enabled kiosks and many other devices. I am also the International and Western US Regional Sales Manager of our newly formed Parking Control Equipment Division.
I'm was the International/Domestic Sales and Marketing Manager for SAS Access Systems. In a nutshell, I sold high-line Building Access systems, like retinal eye scans, finger print readers, proximity systems and elevator controls. Parking Access is also a big seller, such as: Gate arms, Ticket dispensers, Central cashiering and a whole lot more. It may not sound like a lot of fun, but it was. Since it's a growing company, I was multitasked to perform other functions like being the webmaster of our site (check it out), computer engineer for the company, public relations and a whole lot more.
I was in the U.S.Coast Guard for 4 1/2 years and it was
an exciting time for me. I became more mature and experienced many things civilians only hear about. In Bootcamp I recieved the Physical Fitness Award
for excelling above all others in my company. My first duty was on the USCGC Jarvis. It started out really
rough, I was what they called a "mess bitch" which included working in the galley kitchen doing the dishes for the entire crew, in sometimes 40 foot seas. Needless to say,
dishes flew everywhere. After a grueling month of that some other new "boot" came and took over my job. Other duties onboard the ship were: Helicopter tiedown crew,
M-16 gunner on boarding parties, starboard maindeck supervisor, etc. Actually, my duty list is so long I'm not going to mention it here. We were stationed out of Honolulu, Hawaii
and we did a lot of sailing in the islands. We also ventured to Canada and Alaska and did fishery patrols up there in enormous seas. Some of the vessels we boarded were so
unsafe and had so many violations that the tickets we issued sometimes exceeded $1 million. We also did drug interdiction down off of Mexico and in the South Pacific.
My Coast Guard dream was to be an Aviation Survivalsman which is the person who jumps out of the helicopter and rescues people. After being on the ship for a year I wanted to go to school
to make my dream a reality. I was crushed when they told me I was on a waiting list that was THREE years. I opted to take the first school available which turned out to be the hardest school
they had. I was transferred to Training Center Petaluma. I went through a long grueling 6 months learning Morse Code, radio communications,
telecommunications and a bunch of other techno stuff. To graduate you have to get 100% on every test, and these weren't easy tests. If you failed, you got only 1 makeup test, if you didn't get
100% on your makeup test then you were kicked out. Very Hard. Graduating and recieving 2 awards on top of that I was tranferred to The
Seventh Coast Guard District. Here I coordinated life saving rescues, drug interdiction, Haitian and Cubans operations, working with other branches of law enforcement and many
other areas of excitement. In my short time in the Coast Guard I recieved the following ribbons for excellence: Good Conduct, Special Operations, Sea Service, Meritorious Unit Commendation, and M-16 Marksman.
I had a good time in the Coast Guard but I got out because I wasn't jumping out of helicopters and physically saving people. I did however save many lives via the radio and I guess that is what
really matters.
911 Lifesaving
Community service is a big part of who I am. I enjoy helping people who need it. Working for the San Diego Sheriffs Department as a 911 Operator/Dispatcher, I helped thousands of people. It was a stressed filled job that required extreme attention to detail. Critical communications is key, you have to take charge of the situation and provide officer safety, civilian safety and all of this in a one-dimension environment. Being a dispatcher you can only hear what is going on, often our job is more stressful than a police officers because we can't see, smell or touch what's going on at the scene. I would have to keep track of more than 30 officers at a time and coordinate everything while several officers were having emergencies. Stress city. These are some of the things I've dealt with: A man got shot in the head while on the phone with me, two men shot each other point blank in the chests with shotguns, a man was inside a womans house while she was on the phone with me- she locked inside her bedroom until the police arrested the man, a woman stabbed herself repeatedly and locked herself in the bathroom, a child convulsing in a dentists chair, numerous fires, fatal car accidents, a robbery which involved gunfire while I was on the phone and three suicide attempts back to back in one hour while on the phone. I have blocked out a lot of my calls because they were just too intense. I love community service but my sanity was more important to me. I lasted almost a year there and about 3 months working for the Redondo Beach Police Department. I have a million stories to tell, but I am limited on webspace.