Tiffane’s parents were passionate about sports and she was exposed to basketball, skiing, tennis and running at the age of four but found her true passion in the pool. Her specialties were sprint freestyle, backstroke and 200 Individual Medley. She also was very involved in modern dance and ballet. An academic scholarship led to a B.S. in Finance and Accounting at UC Riverside. Following graduation Tiffane worked as a litigation consultant at PricewaterCoopers LLP and had dreams of going to law school. On the morning of May 13, 2005 Tiffane flew to Dallas for a short vacation. That evening she sustained a traumatic spinal cord injury. After fighting for her life in the hospital for several months she was told that she would never move or feel anything below her spinal cord injury at the T7-T8 level and was given little hope that things would or could get better. She found the Center of Restorative Exercise and met Mike MacNamara and Loretta Joseph who suggested she apply for a Swim With Mike scholarship to pursue her dreams of a career in law.