Since I was born in Columbus, Ohio, I consider myself a Buckeye at heart and always feel like I have come home whenever I make it back there. However, I was raised in Tucson, Arizona and feel at home here, as well. From the time I was three, I have been absorbing the heat and the nature that Tucson has to offer; I was lucky enough to be raised in a city that feels like a small town.

Even as a child, I loved the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum! You can still find me there with my flashlight and blacklight on Summer Saturdays when they're open until 10PM. Scorpions and snakes and bats, oh my!

Always an animal lover, I tend to be with a cat.

These are my kids, Leandra, Austin, and Ryan!

I have been teaching since 1998, and I work in finding voices. Palo Verde is my current home, and I enjoy teaching there. My students keep me young, and they teach me every day.

I am in love with the English Language--rhetoric, in particular. Honestly, I want to marry rhetoric. Rhetoric drives the world. Whether it appears online, in person, in front of cameras, or in football stadiums, it is filled with great power, which--as we all know--comes with great responsibility. Masterful rhetoric requires empathy for other points of view and awareness that a speaker can be thoroughly persuasive and completely fallacious at the same time. My goal is to facilitate rhetorical literacy, so my students can be members of an active community of learners and world-changers whose voices are constantly evolving.

Find your voice. Write it down. Set it free!

Along with loving rhetoric and working with students, there are SO MANY OTHER THINGS that move me! Art, theater, Netflix, travel, food, road trips, fandoms, Yahtzee, iced white mochas, nature, Harry Potter, tide pooling, snorkeling, tai chi, zumba, cute animal videos, music, geocaching, photography, exploration, creative writing, and my family!

Some of my favorite places (besides my classroom) are Seattle, Flagstaff, La Jolla, and my bed (Naps are the best!).

Me and Seattle=True Love Forever

When I travel, I take binoculars and always look for wildlife. How many of the animals that I've seen can you identify?

RFK: One of my heroes--what if . . . ?

One of these days . . .

Habitat for Humanity Field/Service Trip

Help me take students to the theater. Donate to my HEAT (Honors English Arts Trips) tax credit program! EXPOSE my students to the arts as a form of literary expression and social commentary. IMPROVE their abilities to analyze texts and communicate with others. LINK amazing representative students with the greater Tucson community. INCREASE unity and retention in the AP (Advanced Placement) program. STRENGTHEN the AP network across grade levels and teachers. PLUS, get up to $400 in credit on your Arizona state taxes, but residents of any state may donate. Donate here. Select Palo Verde High School and then select "HEAT Program Tax Credit". THANK YOU SO MUCH!