Madison Region...our team in south-central Wisconsin

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I first entered the field as a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments in 2013 and spent the following 4 summers obtaining my Master’s degree in Orientation and Mobility. I truly love what I do! I am passionate about supporting our students and their extraordinary educational teams. I am very excited to be a part of LINCS and feel lucky to work so closely with our wonderful teachers!

As people get to know me, they discover that I am a very optimistic person who likes to keep things lighthearted and fun. In my free time, I like to submerge myself in art and music.

"Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never work a day in your life." -Mark Twain

 I have been a teacher, in many different capacities, for most of my adult life--first as an aide at a children’s home, then as a mother, foster mother, adoptive mother, aerobics teacher (oh, the ‘80’s!), business owner and art teacher.  For the past 15 + years, I have been a public school classroom teacher for both ESL and general education students.  I also worked closely with the special education teachers at the schools where I taught so I could better support these students in my classroom.  When the chance to teach vision-impaired students arose, I was immediately interested.  Now, I get to use my creativity and work one-on-one with students of all ages, which has been a dream of mine! 

I have my Bachelors in Business, my Masters in Education, and I am currently working on my Special Education and TVI degree through Western Michigan University.  I love learning. 

My proudest accomplishments, though, are my children, who range in age from 18 to 38, and my 5 grandchildren.

In addition to mothering, grandmothering, and teaching, I enjoy walking, listening to books, swimming, and anything creative and mind-engaging.

I am so excited to be a part of the LINCS family and to have this amazing opportunity to work with the children and families in Western Wisconsin supporting their vision challenges. 

I have been a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments and Certified Orientation & Mobility Specialist for the past 6 years in Illinois. Prior to becoming a vision teacher, I taught elementary school (Kindergarten and 2nd grade).  I became a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments because I have a daughter who is visually impaired.  While each person’s visual impairment and situation is unique; I understand some of the challenges that parents and students who are visually impaired my face.

We moved to Wisconsin in February of 2021. I enjoy watching deer, cranes, and all other wildlife in my backyard!  I love to do different types of arts and crafts!  Creating new things is so much fun. I understand this may be a controversial topic for Packer Fans -however it is important for you to know that I promised my dad that I would forever be a loyal Chicago Bears Fan!  My happy place is anywhere with my family

I want each student to reach his/her greatest potential.  I have always told my daughter that her visual impairment does not define who she is or what she will become -it only makes the route that we take to get there a little different!  I believe this to be true for all of my students!  

 I am so excited to be joining the LINCS family as a teacher for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing! I come from a traditional classroom background, having taught middle school honor’s math, then middle & high school Spanish for almost 20 years. 

I have a Master’s Degree in Bilingual & Multicultural education and have taught ESL learners throughout my entire teaching career. No matter what subject I am teaching, the thing that I am most passionate about when working with students is helping them learn to powerfully self-advocate for themselves. 

With learning communities I love to participate in conversations about increasing equity for all students - as this is an issue that is particularly important for me as a teacher. All learners must feel safe, seen and included! I have found a family of like-minded individuals at LINCS, their dedication to their students and their willingness to support their staff has been evident from our first meeting. I am so fired up to begin applying my skills and experience with a new set of learners, their families and their dedicated advocacy teams here in western Wisconsin!  I am currently pursuing a second MA degree in Special Education: Teaching Deaf & Hard of Hearing Students at the University of Northern Colorado as I develop new strategies and competencies to support my students in their academic, social and personal goals. In my free time I love to garden (especially weeding!), walk my two dogs, cook and bake, and listen to podcasts or audiobooks. I usually have a knitting project on my needles - probably a pair of socks that will take forever to finish - and I’m always ready to head off to the lake or on a camping trip!

 In 2014, I took a position as a teacher at a school for students with visual impairments in Birmingham, United Kingdom. This was a wonderful opportunity as it meant I was able to teach a wide variety of students from many different backgrounds and they all had visual impairments. Also, it is a center of knowledge in the U.K. for all things VI and so I worked with highly experienced QTVIs, Orientation and Mobility specialists and experienced Braille teachers.  I eventually became a Qualified Teacher of Visual Impairments studying at the University of Birmingham (UK) and am committed to making inclusion a reality for all students with disabilities. 

However, I have been a teacher in one way or another since 1996 when I taught English to business people in Prague, Czech Republic. From 1998-2002 I volunteered as a tutor in Chicago at Aquinas Literacy Center. In 2001/2, I was a substitute teacher in the Chicago Public Schools. Eventually, I became a certified elementary teacher in the U.S. and obtained a M.Ed. in elementary education from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2005.  After that I promptly moved to the U.K. and taught general education in diverse primary (elementary) schools in London and Birmingham. In August 2022, I moved back to the U.S. 

While I am a proud Chicagoan (from the southside), my heart will always be half Brummie (from Birmingham, U.K.) after living there for so long.

I live in Madison with my husband, our sons (14 and 16) and our cats –Cheesecake and Mr. Mittens. My hobbies include perfecting my Yorkshire Pudding recipe, listening to podcasts, planning my next “holiday” and “rambling” (hiking) long distances.