Irene has lived throughout the Western United States from Maui to Alaska, Washington State to the Colorado Rockies and all over California. Irene now calls Windsor home where she is raising her children, advocating for special needs students, and championing adult literacy. Irene is a member of the Rotary Club of Windsor, as well as a Sonoma County Library volunteer literacy-program tutor.

Irene earned an ABA approved Associates of Arts in Paralegal Studies at MTI Sacramento (Dean's List); she went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts General Studies in American History from Southern New Hampshire University (Dean's List). Currently, she is a student at Santa Rosa Junior College majoring in Linguistic Anthropology (GPA 4.0).

Irene's interest in estate planning comes from the idea of inheritance in anthropology. She focuses her studies specifically on funerary customs, property rights, and inheritance of wealth among family members. Irene explores how inheritance practices from tribal to large-scale societies come to be embedded in law.

Irene spends her spare time as an amateur entomologist, cultivating rare squash breeds, bird watching, learning sumi-e art, and playing Magic: The Gathering.