Kaitlyn and Sam met this year through Toyota’s Rebelle Program. Kaitlyn is a rookie looking forward to learning navigation, problem solving, and vehicle capability. Samantha is a mult-year Rebelle who has focused on the navigation role in the past and is excited to practice driving while sharing her past Rebelle experience with Kaitlyn. They are both passionate about being the best teammate they can be.
Toyota
Exterior Body Design Engineer at Toyota. I have the pleasure of being involved in the development of vehicles that take people on adventures all over the world.
Ypsilanti, Michigan
Virginia Tech - Mechanical Engineering
The Challenge and the learning opportunities.
Life!
Learning! From navigation and vehicle capability to problem solving and being a stronger teammate.
Senior Engineering Manager: I get to work the with best teams who prepare manufacturing for new model vehicles coming to production.
Frankfort, Kentucky
Purdue University: BS Mechanical and Motorsports Engineering
"You can fail at something that you don't want so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love" Jim Carrey
I have had horses my entire life.
Rebelle is an un-parallelled challenge to push me to learn more about my surroundings and myself. I am in a chapter of my life that I am pushing myself to new limits often. Rebelle is a safe platform to make mistakes, learn from them, and do it again tomorrow that is separate from my daily work/life.
I get greatly inspired by people who take leaps and do things that are uncomfortable at the time.
GOOP – Gwyneth x Brene: On the Roots of Shame, Courage, and Vulnerability
No Ceiling, No Walls – Susan Colantuono
The Toyota Way – Jeffery Liker
Life: I am so grateful for all the things I have gotten and get to do. The joy is in the journey.
2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
I will be getting driving experience in competition and I get to share my experience as a navigator with Kaitlyn to help her achieve her goals.
I have an amazing family with my husband and 2 daughters, own a small farm, enjoy training horses, exploring, learning new things, and people development.
I have a motorsports engineering degree. During college, I worked for Indy 500 Tech Inspection and Top Fuel dragster team designing chassis. In 2014, I competed in Baja 1000 for Toyota as a mechanic. In 2021, I started training for Rebelle and have competed each year since. I approach Rebelle with an open mind and hear to what I will learn each year.
I cannot pick a favorite. I love the variety of terrain and the views.
The most challenging part of Rebelle for me is making sure I stay fueled and hydrated during the hardest days.
Rebelle gave me courage to take on a role at work that I was scared to do. Since then, I have jumped into "Scary" situations/roles knowing that I will find my way through it and will learn great things along the way.
I have enjoyed a lifetime of learning things about all types of cars but have only scratched the surface of what I would like to learn. I am fortunate to be surrounded by friends and family that also love cars.
