Staff Profile

• Growing up in Shoreview, MN and attending Mounds View High School, I played basketball and was concertmaster of my High School Orchestra.  I was a member of the All-State Orchestra my senior year and a National Merit Scholar Finalist.
•  I have a B.S. in Plant Pathology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I raced road bikes with the University of Wisconsin Cycling Team and played violin in the Symphony Orchestra.  After graduation, the Department of Plant Pathology took me on as a laboratory assistant where I flourished, co-authoring several papers.
• The University of Minnesota recruited me for an Assistant Scientist position in the Department of Plant Pathology doing fungal genetics work and field research on dry beans.
• I felt that I needed more people contact so I left my research job and entered the post-baccalaureate MEd/Initial Licensure program for science education at the University of Minnesota.
• I have an MEd in Science Education from the University of Minnesota and a STEM Graduate Certificate from St. Catherine University.
• My teaching career has spanned over 20 years.
• In my spare time I work on my house, car, sew, cook, play Hardanger fiddle (Norwegian fold violin), make bread, drink tea, ride my bike here and there, and make award-winning beer and cider.  I'm a BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) certified beer judge and judge at the Minnesota State Fair.

Favorite quote: "All Battles are won before they are fought"

Sun Tzu
(It's all about the preparation!)