Lynn McLeod has no trouble with Latin. She chooses her mindset each morning when she awakes: CARPE DIEM. It has not always been like that for Lynn, whose childhood was a roller coaster of change. She attended over twenty schools by the time she was a high school freshman.

Reading her book "From Simms to Zanzibar" you experience the character arc authors hope to imbue into every protagonist. Except this is for real. Lynn is not fictional. She may be a business woman by trade, but she's an adventurer at heart. From her beginnings in Texas, she built an impressive portfolio of experience in corporate America at KPMG, Trammell Crow Company, Siemens Medical Systems, GE Capital, Philips Capital and now at Diversified Clinical Services.

Her decision to take a year-long sabbatical to travel required preparation - putting all of her belongings - except those fitting into her backpack, into storage. Her year long journey took her around the globe. She relished the adventure, recording hundreds of vivid images with her camera. She collected friendships the way most people do souvenirs. Lynn's ephipany on the beach in Zanzibar, Africa  altered immeasurably how she would see and experience life.

Lynn credits the mentorship of family and friends as well as her own goal-driven determination for any success she has achieved in business and in life.  Since 2002 she has paid it forward through a scholarship she established and funds at her high school alma mater, James Bowie High School in Simms, Texas. For the past several years her brother, James Garrett, has joined her in bestowing the Garrett Scholarship upon two deserving seniors in the graduating class.  She and James were honored in 2008 with the Distinguished Alumni Award. 

Lynn's continues her mission to pay it forward by mentoring for Denver Kids, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides mentoring and counseling to at-risk students in the Denver, Colorado area.   The program, which graduates more than 90 percent of their students, aligns with Lynn's belief that education empowers.  (This compares to a graduation rate of 50% rate for the Denver public school system and a 70% national average.)

Basketball and softball initiated a teen-aged Lynn into an active lifestyle she has embraced ever since. She believes that physical conditioning and personal health should be as much a part of life as sleeping and eating. In 2008 she trained to become Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) certified (equivalent to EMT-Basic) which is a requirement of the National Ski Patrol organization. She participates in the volunteer ski patrol program at the Winter Park ski resort, home to the nation's leading disabled skier program. Lynn intends to volunteer every season, and says lightly, "Plan to see me there, in my wheelchair if necessary, when I'm 95."
She isn't kidding.  

Simms is a small town in the far northeast corner of the Republic of Texas. Zanzibar is an island off the eastern coast of Africa, part of the Republic of Tanzania. They have absolutely nothing in common other than the fact that they both have played a considerable role in Lynn's life. Significant enough for her to write a book and travel the country speaking about her experiences.

From the moment she steps on stage, Lynn's passion and zeal for life sizzle. Her goal is to inspire others to live fully, without regret.

Her personal motto says it all:

Life is not a journey to the grave with the
intent of arriving all pretty and preserved; but
rather to skid in broadside thoroughly used up,
totally worn out and loudly proclaiming;
WOW! WHAT A RIDE!         

~ Unknown

In her free time, Lynn faithfully watches every Dallas Cowboy football game wherever she can find it being broadcast in Colorado, where she currently resides.