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 7+ years, I have taught English at Radford. My main goals as a writing instructor are not only to improve the clarity of my students' writing, but to make them more aware consumers of media.

I started my teaching career in New Hampshire but soon moved to Virginia. After living in Meadows of Dan for three years, I divorced my first husband, moved my three children and myself to Dublin, and remarried. These are my children, Lindsay, Matthew, and Frances (L to R). They are now in their late teens.

This picture was taken at Rocky Knob. 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 Cascades, 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 western 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 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.