I grew up in rural New Hampshire and graduated from Syracuse University, in central New York, in 2004 with degrees in Geography and Spanish.  I developed a love of working with children through babysitting, lifeguarding, camp counselling, and substitute teaching jobs throughout my teens and early 20s.  I moved to Washington after college, lured by tales of the beauty and wonder of the Pacific Northwest, and settled in Olympia.  I worked for brief stints as a pizza deliverer, geoduck farmer, and mattress factory employee, and then for six years as a research assistant for the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP).  WSIPP conducts non-partisan research for the state legislature on topics such as education, criminal justice, and social services.  After my eyes were sufficiently damaged from staring at spreadsheets for six years, I decided it was time to get back into teaching and, after a two year masters in teaching program at The Evergreen State College, I ended up here at Tumwater Hill!  I'm very excited to be teaching at T.H.E. for a fifth year.