I grew up as the youngest daughter of 12 children. My dream in life was to become a scientist and when I was out of high school I went to work for a NASA contractor that built Space Shuttles. I worked my way up in the company and after eight years my husband and I decided to start a family. After my two daughters were born, we chose to leave California and move back to Washington State. I went back to school to pursue a degree in Biology. While there I started tutoring high school students and fell in love with teaching. I finished by Biology degree and obtained on in Education as well.

After teacher for a year, I knew I needed to get back to school and I went on to finish my masters. Being a lover of education, I enrolled in a PhD program in Leadership and Education, which I am due to finish in May of 2010. During this time, I endeavored obtain my national boards in science and did so. I am currently enrolled at Gonzaga University and working on my doctorate in Leadership and Education.

I currently am in my 10^th year teaching 7^th grade Life Science. I am also involved in teaching computers and digital photography. My new endeavor this year is to design a class based on STEM in order to feed into the high school program.

My educational passions include assessment and I currently sit on the state science committee in order to look at our state assessment and how it aligns with the state and national standards. I work on the committee to look at curriculum and was honored to be able to work on the revision of our state standards.

My current endeavors include working in a science lab this summer and for the next three summers through the Department of Energy. I am learning about how education and real life science work together and the discrepancies. I am also planning on going to Russia for several weeks next spring to look at their educational process.

I am thrilled to say that I have been married to the love of my life for twenty five years. We have two beautiful daughters who are both in college as of this year. I am adjusting to living away from them, not well I might add. In my free time, I love to read and sew. Another of my pride and joys include my vegetable garden that is forever overgrowing because I don’t have the heart to trim it.