I have been teaching and writing in some capacity for more than 25 years. After studying Russian and Linguistics at the University of New Hampshire, I earned a Master's in Education with a concentration as a Reading Specialist. With these credentials, I taught grades K-8 as both a classroom teacher and Reading Specialist for 12 years. Ready for a change, I went back to school at Radford University to earn a Master's in English. For the past 8+ years, I have taught Freshman English, American Literature, and a smattering of Business Writing at Radford University. My main goals as a writing instructor are not only to improve the quality of my students' writing, but to make them more aware consumers of media and the propaganda that besets our pseudo-news outlets.

I started my teaching career in New Hampshire but soon moved to Virginia, quite accidentally ending up close to the Appalachian Trail and a stone's throw from the New River, a great place for raising my three children.

This picture was taken at Rocky Knob along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I spend much of my free time biking, kayaking, and hiking on the Appalachian Trail with various friends or my dog, Zoey. Our favorite hikes are the Sinking Creek Mountain, Dragon's Tooth, and McAfee's Knob.

During the summer, I attend conferences, sometimes presenting papers as I did at the Association for the Study of Language and the Environment Annual Conference in Flagstaff, Arizona, and work on writing projects. While at the Flagstaff conference, we hiked along the south rim of the Grand Canyon and rafted down the Glen River Canyon.

This is the top of Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina. The dead trees you see are believed to have been killed by air pollution and the woolly adelgid. Some of my professional interests are ecocriticism and environmental literature. You can view an article I wrote about pollution and the New River at the Reflections on the River web site. Unfortunately, since I wrote that article, PCBs and other contaminants have shown up in many samples from the New River.

By following the links on this page, you can find information about the courses I teach and my writing. I am currently working on a collection of short stories, which I plan to title Crooked Paths. When I'm not teaching or writing, I work with the New River Valley chapter of the Sierra Club and ponder man's connection with nature.