Meet the Moms: Patch's Team Will Host a New Conversational Feature Called 'MomsTalk'

Today, we introduce our Patch team of Moms who are looking forward to gathering resources, offering their ideas about parenting to get the conversation started weekly. Wednesday is MomsTalk day. We invite parents to jump in and ask and answer questions of their own.

Trish Tsoiasue

Trish Tsoiasue is a mother of a 4th grader at Lowell Elementary School. In her day job, she tests software. As a volunteer, her primary focuses are community and youth. Her current volunteer commitments include Shared Science, an elementary school science and robotics program that prepares children for participation in competitions, the Boy Scouts of America (Long Beach Pack 007) and the Lowell PTA.

As Handmade Penguin she organizes art activities and competitions that bring
artists and children together for shared learning experiences. In the summer she leads Giant Pumpkin growing activities. Favorite college classes were Trampoline, Scuba Diving and Backpacking.

Trish loves to visit clubs with specific, but lesser-known purposes, and to that end has dabbled in spelunking, 3D photography and spinning (yes with a spinning wheel). Her most current interests include preparing children's artwork for sewing out on her amazing embroidery machine and a revived interest in hiking, thanks to Den 1! She credits her father, the Happy Tomato for his influence. 

A few maxims by which to live: If it's too easy, it's not fun. No task too lowly. Butterflies are everywhere... Pick one and follow it! Happy is a Happy Tomato!

Nicole Gracie

After a successful career in sales and marketing consulting for high tech companies, Nicole decided to pursue her passion and become a college admissions & recruiting coach, founding Univarsity.

Nicole began her career in college sports as a NCAA Division I athlete at the University of California, Berkeley. Being a collegiate athlete has been one of the high points of Nicole’s life, and she loves helping and inspiring high school athletes to realize their own dreams of playing college sports. 

Nicole is a graduate of the College Counseling Certificate program at UCLA. She also volunteers in the counseling office Long Beach Poly High School and works with several of the sports teams. Nicole is married and has a daughter who attends Poly High School and plays on the golf team.

Susie Ridgeway

Susie is a native of Long Beach. She has two children, a daughter, 9, and a son, 13, that attend Lowell Elementary and Rogers Middle School, respectively.

The family lives in Belmont Shore. Susie graduated from USC in 1989 with a Bachelors Degree in Art History.  After a long and fun career in the hotel industry, Susie now works for a large bank in the home loan division. 

In her free time, which isn't very often as her kids and work keep her quite busy, she enjoys walking on the beach and reading.  Susie is also training a 9-month-old puppy named Delaney for Guide Dogs of America.  She is looking forward to sharing her life and contributing to Patch!

Elizabeth Borsting

Elizabeth is a travel author and writer whose work has appeared in national and local publications. A resident of Belmont Shore, she owns a public relations company that represents national hotel and restaurant chains, as well as local business.

She is a graduate of Cal State Long Beach and is the married mother of two children, her daughter at Lowell, her son at Rogers. She is also a leader in Girl Scouts (want some cookies?). She writes restaurant reviews for Patch and is part of the new Mom Team that will help find notable Whiz Kids in our neighborhood and guide a parents' Q&A feature at Belmont Shore-Naples Patch.

Stay tuned for MomTalk. And please throw out questions for discussion in our comments below.