About

Born and raised in the Lone Star State, I graduated from the University of Texas and worked in book publishing, my undergraduate English major dream. Greenleaf Book Group allowed me to develop skills as a publishing assistant in editing and layout design that have become invaluable to me today. Yet over time office life left an all too predictable void in my world. I was recommended to help teach English and build a language curriculum at Casa Marianella, a shelter providing housing, food, and full supportive services to homeless immigrants in Austin. I was quickly fascinated by the stories, languages, and cultures of Casa’s residents, shared initially to me by cooking tamales and stews in the small, dusty kitchen of the main house. I discovered the joy of teaching, and thus began the near decade career in advocacy, education, and cultural exploration outside of the United States.

I moved to Peru, where with the help of my now husband, Tim, spent countless days walking the cobblestoned streets of Cusco pitching business plans and teaching English for an adult language school. Cusco came to a close after two years of churros, pisco sours, and frolicking about the Andes as Tim and I made the decision to begin careers as international teachers. The mountains became the desert, alpacas transformed into camels, and empanadas were replaced by shwarma. Goodbye Incan capital, hello Middle East. At the American School of Kuwait, I made another momentous shift into working with children as the Elementary ELL teacher, a position which allowed me to see the transformational capabilities of language learners spanning a lifetime. I used my experience in the Andes to spark excitement in our student body through sustainability education, encouraging locally- and globally-based service projects with a focus on environmental awareness. I saw in Kuwait a desperate need for inclusion amongst the migrant and domestic working class. Nannies were the most consistently seen caretakers for many children, but had little role socially amongst the Arab community, and lacked laws to protect their rights as laborers. I found Project 189, an advocacy NGO representing domestic worker’s rights in the Middle East, and worked diligently for years outside of teaching to mobilize education initiatives through the arts for this marginalized community.

Strong images create awareness. Magnum photographer Ian Berry in Sharjah guided my photographic examination of fisherman along the Arab coast. In the Omo Valley of Ethiopia I learned field lighting from professional photographer Trupal Pandya while sleeping alongside tribes and sharing campfire stories. Capturing moments from glamorous female-only weddings of the Kuwaiti royal families was my weekend work for Studio Whitehead. Over the years I’ve been fortunate to study under these professional photographers to refine my own visual storytelling techniques, defining qualities of a photo that open pathways for cultural exploration, and learning how images can convey understanding of social issues.

The culmination of our teaching experience abroad landed us a dream job at Shanghai American School, where I had the privilege to work with some of the best educators on our beautiful planet. Working with High School students was a new and enlightening challenge, and becoming a diligent student of Chinese opened up new ways of looking at and thinking about language. But the best gift of our time in Shanghai was the birth of our baby girl, Vega.