Audrey has been involved in the field of brain injury for over 40 years. Beginning in 1981 when she personally experienced a severe brain injury and multiple other injuries at the age of 18, when she was involved in a car accident near her hometown of Cornell, Wisconsin. She was just six weeks into her Freshman year of College.
Although she was told that it was very unlikely she would be able to return to college, Audrey enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire the following year. It was a struggle, but 5 years later, graduated with a Bachelors in Social Work with a minor in Business in Administration.
While at UW-Eau Claire, she was a founding member and facilitator of a local Brain Injury Support Group (1983), which met for over 30 years. She also became a board member, for the first time (1985), of the Wisconsin Brain Trauma Association, which is now the Brain Injury Alliance of Wisconsin.