About Teodorie

Teodorie Agdeppa Ravara is a Catholic, San Francisco-born and raised woman who has turned surviving into an art form.

She is a cancer survivor, a stroke survivor, and a veteran of more than thirty-five life-threatening anaphylactic episodes. She has crossed the finish lines of four full marathons, three half marathons, and three triathlons.

She began her career at Time-Life Books in San Francisco, where she sold multiple book series and other products to customers across the country. During the 1989 earthquake, she was on the phone pitching the Mysteries of the Unknown series when the building began to shake. She calmly told the customer, “Eh, we have them all the time. It will pass before you know it.”

This time it did not.

In those early days, she was distributing other people’s stories. Nearly four decades later, she would write her own.

Over sixteen years in Silicon Valley, she worked in enterprise networking and cybersecurity, eventually becoming a senior software engineer working on high-end routers, firewalls, and Intrusion Detection and Prevention systems.

She returned to school in 2007 and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Project Management, earning all four top honors awarded for her senior project.

She has been happily married for twenty-eight years to her set-up junior prom date, George Ravara, whom she calls the true hero of heroes. George works full time as a Project Manager and a Financial Advocate while also serving as her primary caregiver. Together, they have three children, Tia, Geordie, and Rylie Anne, along with Remington Riker, their Goldendoodle service dog, and a bearded dragon, Fred.

She has served for many years on the parish Pastoral Council and in numerous liturgical and volunteer roles, including Eucharistic Minister, Lector, Sunday School Teacher, Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) Athletics Coach, and Parent-Teacher Group (PTG) President, investing deeply in faith, youth, and family life.

Today, Teodorie is the CEO and Founder of Valerie Asher LLC. After years of illness and recovery, she turned her story into a blueprint for resilience, self-advocacy, and starting over when everything feels broken. Through her writing and disability-focused projects, she stands with people who are underestimated, overlooked but still trying.

Setting Sun is the inaugural book presented by Valerie Asher LLC and the first in a growing body of work about hope, courage, and the real cost of choosing to keep going.