“I am here to provide you with a constant connection to the Department of Education. Please feel free to contact me at anytime with your questions, feedback, input, and ideas. All the best as you begin the 2008-2009 school year, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.”

My connection to Florida’s public schools began years before I ever stepped into a classroom. During the depression, my grandfather worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps constructing classrooms at Samoset Elementary in east Manatee County. His children and grandchildren attended Samoset and it is where my mother began her Florida teaching career. I am proud to be a product of Manatee County schools as well as Florida’s university system, having received my Bachelor of Science in education from Florida State University and my Master of Science degree from the University of South Florida.

I am a state of Florida certified teacher and over the past 25 years it has been my privilege to teach all elementary levels, from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade. My teaching career started in Manatee County at Myakka City School where I taught from 1981-1989. During that time I served on state education committees, conducted teacher-as-researcher projects in my classroom, and presented writing workshops to public school teachers throughout central Florida. I also taught General Equivalency Diploma (GED) evening classes that enabled many of the parents of my elementary students to earn a high school diploma.

My desire to “see the world” led me overseas in 1989; I spent the next 17 years teaching for international schools, including schools in Papua New Guinea and East Africa. My husband, a public high school biology, chemistry, and physics teacher, and I, along with our three sons, relocated to Tallahassee in 2006, and I renewed my relationship with Florida schools by teaching third grade at Hawks Rise Elementary. In 2007 I accepted a position as a Writing Project manager with the Test Development Center (TDC) where I was able to use my practical classroom experience in the field of assessment. I have been a member of the Leon County Education Association, the National Education Association, and Delta Kappa Gamma, a professional honor society of women educators. I enjoy running, tennis, gardening, and watching my sons play football, basketball, and lacrosse.