Engaging with words is the abiding interest of my intellectual and professional lives. I aim to assist others in harnessing the power of this creative medium.

After a long period of dedication to full-time parenting, I am pursuing a creative and professional role.  In my various capacities—scholar, teacher, school board member, activist, parent, volunteer—I have written and edited all manner of communication. These include: friendly outreach emails, formal letters, legal policy, website content, a novel in progress, and other projects large and small. I seek to master the variety of writing genres that foster understanding, and to assist others in doing so. 

For over ten years, I taught composition and literature courses to college students.  I created an environment within which students were invited to hone their critical thinking skills.  Together, we read interesting texts and had challenging conversations; these generated the content of students’ writing projects.  The more we talked about ideas–experts’, authors’, each other’s–the more creative and critically engaged my students’ writing became.  Our spoken words generated more deeply considered words and ideas on the page.  As an instructor, I emphasized the importance of revision, clarity, and efficiency of language. 

I earned a PhD in English at the University of Oregon in 2014. I wrote about British and Irish modernisms and the novel.  As a student, my creative and critical minds were invited to range widely; I seek this kind of intellectual engagement in my present work. I am currently revising a draft of my first novel, reading obsessively, parenting two elementary-aged children, and doing my best.