Diane attended Oregon State University, majoring in business. She joined a business advisory group called the Chief Executive Forum in 1992 which she is still active in today. She has received an excellent business education through that group and considers it the main reason for her business and financial success. Eventually her family sold the business to a key employee in 2007 afterwhich she and her husband retired at the age of 51.

After a few years of travel, they settled in Scappoose and in November 2010, went to work for Dennis and Kayla as COO of Essential Wholesale. Over the years she has faced many significant business challenges and learned from all of them. She is a well rounded, honest business person and has surrounded herself with other successful business professionals and has continued to learn from them and grow her knowledge base. She has done her best to mentor and provide opportunities to grow for people who have worked with her. She thinks her best years and greatest successes are still ahead of her and loves getting up each day. In case you can't tell, she is an incurable optimist.