Biographical Blurb

Deb was born on October 7, 1971 in New Britain, Connecticut. She has two younger siblings, both sisters, and soon after the youngest was born Deb's family moved to Pawtucket, Rhode Island. She still holds her residence in this charming town now.

Parochial school classes took up a significant amount of Deb's time as a child. Out of all her classes, she enjoyed penmanship the least and phonics the most. Deb recalls that "we had a Sister Juliette who'd whack you with a ruler if you weren't writing correctly in penmanship. If only she could see my handwriting today! I no longer have an inkling of parochial penmanship in my system." She remembers that as she advanced through grade school and junior high, she was interested in a little bit of everything. "I just really liked to learn," Deb told us. "I was always a good student. It made it tough for my sisters to come up behind me. I kind of set a high standard!"

Outside of school, Deb spent much of her leisure time reading: "The Little House on the Prairie books were my favorite! I would consider Laura Ingalls Wilder as one of my childhood heroes." Her favorite book throughout her childhood, which she still has a copy of today, is Charlotte's Web.

As for other heroes she remembers during her childhood, Deb says that "unless you were a gymnast or an ice skater, it was hard to find female sports role models when I was growing up." Instead, her role models included Helen Keller and Anne Frank.

During her teenage years, Deb was particularly fond of the work of American feminist and journalist Gloria Steinem. This admiration has continued well into adulthood. Deb says, "Gloria Steinem always impressed me as a teenager. Why wouldn't she? I had been a girl playing baseball! I was born to be a feminist. But as I got older and learned more about what she stood for, I was hooked. How cool was this woman who felt so strongly about something and stuck to it. She never wavered on her position."

Now, Deb has redefined her idea of a hero once again: "Even before I knew this was the life that I wanted to live, I had always supported the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. Once I found the person that I want to spend the rest of my life was a female, I knew I had been fighting the right battle. So at this point in my life, I admire anyone (whether it is a bus driver or grandmother or law maker) who supports the equal treatment of everyone in this country, regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation."

As for her athletic involvement, Deb says that "I grew up doing all the usual neighborhood things -- wiffle ball, kickball, stuff like that." She began playing for the Pawtucket Slaterettes at the age of ten, after her best friend brought home a flyer inviting young girls to try out for their baseball teams. In high school, she played softball.

Deb's grandfather was particularly important to her as a child. She and her sisters spent quite a bit of time with their grandparents as children. Deb remembers fondly that "my grandfather would pick us up on Friday afternoons and we'd spend the night. He taught me all kinds of useful things! Like how to make bowling pins out of 2 liter coke bottles. Or how to water the lawn in the evening and go look for night crawlers. He was always up for a game of catch."

As she got older, Deb's grandfather taught her a slew of skills: "He taught me to do all kinds of yard work -- using the lawn mower, trimming bushes, etc. The ironic part is that I now live on the first floor of a two-family house underneath my grandmother, and now I'm the one doing all of those things. Those are the times when I miss him the most." The lessons Deb learned from her grandfather have stayed with her all these years.

Few people escape childhood and the teenage years without some challenges, and Deb was no exception. However, when all is said and done, she has applied these challenges and her own solutions to her adult life. She insists that "it is important not to put things off and to live life to the fullest." Deb celebrates each day for all that it is worth.

"A hundred years from now it will not matter
what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove.
But the world may be different because I was important
in the life of a child."
~Deb's favorite quote