Lisa had an early love for horses and the western way of life,  she started riding at an early age. At the age of 11 she convinced her father to let her buy her first horse with the $300.00 she won from entering an art contest for the Sacramento County Fire Marshals office and the rest is history.

Her family relocated to the Bay Area where her love and passion for horses and her newfound love for the Spanish Missions and the rich history behind them. She was active in the High School Rodeo Association, 4-H and the FFA competing at events year around. She worked to help pay for her horse board by leading trail rides, cleaning stalls and feeding at the local barn. During the summers she was a wrangler at Cherry Valley Pack Station outside Yosemite National Park.

After graduating high school, she attended Ohlone Junior College where she learned about the rich history of the Ohlone Tribe and fell in love with Native American art especially the jewelry. She earned a spot as a  photographer for the college newspaper allowing her to apply what she learned in her photography classes in high school and in college. She later transferred to Cal-Poly State University to continue her education in agriculture and photography. Here photography skills landed her a position as photographer for the College of Agriculture newspaper.

After graduating college, she moved home to the Bay Area. Jobs were hard to find, and the economy was bad. Her family had a horse on the racetrack at Bay Meadows and when the race meet was over, she left to work on the track at Los Alamitos. She spent 10 year working on the track as the pony girl and assistant trainer while married to a racehorse trainer. She raced horses from Southern California to New Mexico to Colorado rekindling her love for the southwest and Native American art.

She continued her love for the western lifestyle while living in Montana for the past 25 years teaching students all about agriculture while continuing to compete with her barrel horse at local, regional and national events earning her several world titles. She is now retired from teaching and loves working in sales bringing joy to peoples lives one piece of turquoise jewelry at a time.