Special Education Instructor

This is my third year at Renville County West High School as a teacher for Deaf/Hard of Hearing, as well as Special Education. I am a transplant to the area and currently live in Granite Falls, but have lived and taught in Minnesota since 2007. Before that, I taught down in Glenwood, Iowa, where we were stationed with Offutt AFB, across the river in Nebraska. While there, I finished my teaching degree in Deaf Education and Elementary Education, as well as adding my Masters in Special Education-Developmental Cognitive Delay K-12 from the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). I originally hail from Kokomo, Indiana, and have two children. My daughter is in her Junior year at the U of M Carlson School of Business, and my son recently finished his Army National Guard training and is attending MinnWest for Power Lineman training. 

A little more about myself:

I am hard of hearing with a bilateral loss, with a right-sided high frequency sensorineural mild sloping to severe loss, and a left-sided moderate to Severe/Profound Mixed loss. I am a proud user of a Cochlear Baha (bone-anchored hearing aid) for my left-sided loss and an intermittent user of a BTE (behind the ear hearing aid) for my right-sided loss. As a sign language user and lip-reader, I've found this time of Covid-19/mask wearing to be very difficult!

I have inherited a beloved dog, Sirius, from my brother, and my daughter's bird, Sienna. 

I enjoy walking, riding my bike, painting, playing cards and board games, singing with a local barber shop group, and cooking.