From Ambulances to Aveda: How a Chance Meeting Shaped a Life Transition

Alex Gonzalez is a Renaissance man and a true people-person. He grew up in California and New Mexico where he spent most of his time singing in musicals and chorus.  He wowed the vocal director at New Mexico State during his PHONE audition and snagged a scholarship!  He supported himself in college with a part-time job in the Emergency Department of the local hospital where he discovered a profound interest in helping people in crisis and enrolled in Paramedic school.  

For the next 25 years, Alex worked as an EMT, making connections and fostering relationships along the way.  He was serving as an EMS clinical director when a chance encounter in an emergency room introduced him to a couple who would change the course of his life.  Little did he know that that friendship would result in a call from New York City and a chance to attend the Aveda Institute of Cosmetology.