Amanda graduated from El Dorado High School and attended the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. There she earned her Master's Degree in Physical Therapy so she could begin helping people. Amanda moved home to El Dorado in 1998 and worked at SAMA Healthcare Services as their Director of Rehabilitation. She started helping out at MPJ in 2001 on a part-time basis. She found herself falling in love with the trade and enrolled in gemology classes in 2004. While raising a family and working at the store, she dove into studying the trade and has been dedicated to learning everything about it ever since. She graduated from the Gemological Institute of America in Carlsbad, California in 2017, earning her Graduate Gemologist Degree – the highest degree attainable in gems. She loves educating people about diamonds so they can truly understand and appreciate not only their beauty, but how each diamond is unique and has its own story to tell. She also loves design work and recreating inherited pieces by turning them into something that is unique for her clients.
