- When readers meet Valorie, the most common first reaction is, “You’re so little!” Although you can’t tell in pictures or on television, she is 5’1 ½” (don’t forget the ½”!) “For years, I insisted I was 5’3”, even my driver’s license said so! Like that was somehow better than being 5 foot one,” she says jokingly. “I’m over it now – and yes, the license has been corrected.”
- Most of her friends and family call her “Val.”
- Valorie grew up learning to speak German and Spanish, and has a love for learning about other cultures and people.
- Valorie was an “Air Force brat,” born on Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Florida. She also lived in Frankfurt, West Germany for three years before moving to Denver, Colorado at the age of 10 where she lived through high school graduation.
- Valorie is most at peace at the beach – especially the white sand beaches of Florida. As a child, her family’s backyard on the Air Force base was 200 feet from the Gulf of Mexico. From her swing set, she would watch dolphins jumping around. “I thought everyone had dolphins in their backyard!” she says. (Baby photo in her backyard in Florida)
- Valorie spent her first year of college as a cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy. “It was truly an honor to be there, but I knew in my heart it was not the right path for me,” she says.
- Valorie met her husband in Monterey, California. They were neighbors and met at the mailbox one afternoon in 1991. Years later, in 2001, they reconnected. They married in 2003. Charles is a computational scientist and former Naval officer from New York.
- “How did you earn your master’s degree in journalism at 21 years old?” is a
question she gets asked a lot. Here’s the scoop:
- She graduated high school a year early at 17. She finished college in three years and she graduated with a degree in International Affairs. Then she entered graduate school and graduated in about 16 months.
- Valorie is intrigued and excited about the pioneering new field of positive psychology, founded by renowned psychologist, Dr. Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania. Unlike traditional psychology, which focuses on alleviating problems, positive psychology studies the science of fulfillment, happiness, meaning and achievement. Her love of learning led her to formally study the field and she graduated with a master's degree in applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in the spring of 2008.
- Valorie’s only sibling is more than 20 years younger than she is. Wade is her pride and joy – and they are very close. Born just three weeks before she graduated college, there is the same age difference between her and her brother as there is between her and her mother! They love hanging out and visiting museums and historic places together. He entered high school in the fall of 2007 and her book, Why Not You?, is dedicated to him.
- Valorie competed in her first pageant at the age of 13. Over the years, she competed in at least 30 or 40. The last was Miss Texas 1997 at which she was 3rd runner-up and the first African-American to make the top 5 since 1977. (Photo: Valorie at Miss Texas pageant with Mom (in blue), Dad, and good friend Sheilah)
- Her favorite movie of all time is The Color Purple. She loves a well-written comedy – The Cosby Show, Bernie Mac, Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond rank among her all-time favorites.
- Her favorite pastimes include reading books, boating, kayaking, making jewelry and visiting spas.
- Although you can’t tell from all of the places she’s lived, Valorie’s roots are in Anderson, South Carolina, where both of her parents were born and raised. She enjoys tracing her family history and, so far, she’s traced her heritage in South Carolina and Georgia back to 1827.
Photo of Val and Wade visiting George Washington’s house at Mount Vernon in 2006
