I enjoy the outdoors and have hiked, backpacked, camped, explored, and taught in diverse outdoor settings around the country. I like to draw and paint, travel, read, walk my dog, daydream, and travel - and am currently learning how to do beadwork. I spent 12 years as a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines. I have worked with many youth organizations and camps and schools in a variety of capacities over the years.
For the past 25+ years I have been a teacher in both formal and non-formal education settings with skills in coordinating education programs, writing curriculum, training teachers and I try to leverage care and compassion with a passion to help all students achieve their best. I currently teach in an alternative High School for Native American students in the Philipps neighborhood area in South Minneapolis. I love working at this school and feel so fortunate to be doing so. Every day is an adventure that keeps me learning... lots! For most of my varied career I’ve been a Biology teacher, Chemistry teacher and Environmental Educator. For the past year, however, I have been teaching Social Studies within an indigenous perspective, and I am learning (by doing) how to set up and run a video production studio in our school that will enable us to expand the experiential and project-based learning opportunities at our school.
In addition to classroom teaching, for 18 years I worked with the MN Department of Natural Resources as an education specialist in the Fish and Wildlife Division. While at the DNR I developed a national award-winning curriculum and training that helps teachers expand their classrooms into the outdoors and include Minnesota’s lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands through the outdoor physical activity of fishing with learning across disciplines that’s relative, engaging and fun - and that remains mindful of cultural inclusivity for both schools and youth programs in Minnesota.
