Staciana Stitts Winfield (born September 12, 1981 in Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

) is a breaststroke

Breaststroke

The breaststroke is a swimming style in which the swimmer is on his or her chest and the torso does not rotate. It is the most popular recreational style due to its stability and the ability to keep the head out of the water a large portion of the time. In most swimming classes, beginners learn...

 swimmer from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. She is a 2000 Summer Olympics

2000 Summer Olympics

The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

 and 1999 Pan American Games

1999 Pan American Games

The 1999 Pan American Games, officially the XIII Pan American Games or the 13th Pan American Games, was a major international multi-sport event that was held from July 23-August 8, 1999 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Approximately 5,000 athletes from 42 nations participated at the games. The 1999...

 gold medalist, and 1998 Goodwill Games

1998 Goodwill Games

The 1998 Goodwill Games was the fourth edition of the international sports competition, created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. The competition was held in New York, United States from July 19 to August 2, 1998.-Medal table:-References:*...

 silver medalist. She has been a resident of Carlsbad, California

Carlsbad, California

-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Carlsbad had a population of 105,328. The population density was 2,693.1 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Carlsbad was 87,205 White, 1,379 African American, 514 Native American, 7,460 Asian, 198 Pacific Islander, 4,189 from other...

 and Encinitas, California

Encinitas, California

Encinitas is a coastal beach city in San Diego County, California. Located within Southern California, it is approximately north of San Diego in North County and about south of Los Angeles. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 59,518, up from 58,014 at the 2000 census. Encinitas is...

.

Stitts and her University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 teammates Haley Cope, Joscelin Yeo

Joscelin Yeo

Joscelin Yeo Wei Ling is a Nominated Member of Parliament and a former competitive swimmer from Singapore. Yeo won 40 gold medals at the Southeast Asian Games, as well as represented the Republic in the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Summer Olympics...

, and Praphalsai Minpraphal broke the 4x50 Medley Relay (Short-course) World record in 2000 with a time of 1:49.23.

In 2004, she graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree. From 2005-2006, Stitts-Winfield worked at the College of Charleston

College of Charleston

The College of Charleston is a public, sea-grant and space-grant university located in historic downtown Charleston, South Carolina, United States...

 in the role of assistant swimming coach. In June 2006, Stitts-Winfield was named an assistant swimming coach at USC

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

.

Stitts-Winfield states, "The life significance of losing my hair at age 12 from alopecia areata

Alopecia areata

Alopecia areata is a medical condition in which hair is lost from some or all areas of the body, usually from the scalp. Because it causes bald spots on the scalp, especially in the first stages, it is sometimes called spot baldness. In 1–2% of cases, the condition can spread to the entire scalp ...

 has made me a very strong, determined person." She has been a motivational speaker at the National Alopecia Areata Foundation's Teens Conference Camp and has been a spokesperson for the Children's Alopecia Project. Now Staciana Stitts is a coach at The Buckley School

The Buckley School

The Buckley School is a college preparatory day school, founded in 1933 by Isabelle Buckley. It is located in Sherman Oaks, in the San Fernando Valley portion of the Los Angeles, California...

.

Family

Stitt's parents, who reside in Encinitas, California are both high school teachers at Carlsbad High School, and she has two brothers, and a sister, Alicia who swam at the University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

.

She married Brett Winfield.