Born in Dallas, Texas Lia is the second of six children. She was raised by an abusive, alcoholic father and a mother of Hispanic descent who stayed with him until after Lia's return from Dhaka. Lia went to college and university immediately after her 1996 pardon, graduating in 2001 with multiple honors including Philosophy, Economics and cum laude from the University of Saint Thomas in Houston. The impact of her time in Dhaka and the incredible support of the foreign service officers from the embassy inspired her to major in International Studies with a goal of joining the foreign service. She worked at the Johnson Space Center while pursuing her degree. Upon graduation, her hopes of becoming a civil servant at NASA fizzled. She took and failed the exam to become a foreign service officer - twice and eventually moved to Washington, DC where she spent years as a consultant at Capital One. She met her husband in DC and their son was born in 2014. Her time in the Capitol allowed her to spend time with several of the FSO's she met during her imprisonment in Dhaka - including the first ever Special Envoy for LGBTI Rights. She is still very close to a missionary that befriended and supported her during the last few years of her time in Dhaka but was not portrayed in the episode on LUA. Mitali Perkins is an award winning young adult writer whose book Rickshaw Girl was made into a movie.Since the airing of her story on Locked Up Abroad, Lia has told even more of her childhood experiences on friends podcasts and in her own Facebook videos. She is eager to uplift and empower those who know or find her by being open about what led her to make the drastic choices she did. She is passionate about the Younique Foundation and their work through the Haven Retreat for adult survivors of childhood sexual assault. She participated in the retreat in 2018 and continues to benefit from that experience and the friendships born there.Lia is a cinephile whose everyday conversations are sprinkled with quotes from just about any movie she ever saw and liked. Her brain is a mini-IMDB database that spits out random connections and tidbits about actors and movies. Indeed, she dreams of doing something that is beneficially impactful enough to earn an invitation to the Golden Globes where her favorite actors and actresses will want to get to know her. Until then, she is making her mark in the residential solar world as a consultant with Sunrun. Show less «