About Me

I was born in Utah, and have always been LDS.  But my family moved around when I was growing up, so during my younger childhood I lived in Utah, Idaho, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.  My later childhood was all in Utah.  All of the traveling, though, gave me a desire to travel and experience different parts of the world.

Upon graduating high school, I left home and went to New York to go to college.  This started a whole new adventure in my life... a long story for another time... that took me to many corners of the globe.  I met many different people, and got to try many new things.

On one of my many adventures, though, I met the man that would later become my husband.  Together we shared many adventures, both before and after getting married.

Some time after getting married, I decided to go back to school.  I got my Masters in Elementary Education, then went on to get my Doctorate in Cognition at Columbia University, Teachers College.  My focus for my Doctoral work ended up being in math education in early childhood (another long story).

I am now a professor of education, teaching courses in math education, science education, and early childhood development.  Needless to say, I love education and teaching, and hope to help others develop the skills and understanding necessary to be good teachers.

My husband and I have two beautiful boys... and both have Autism.  Learning to parent children with Autism has been one of the greatest challenges and blessings of my life.  But one of the greatest blessings that has come out of it, is that it has made me a better teacher, with a greater understanding of how to meet the needs of all children.

My career passion is to help future teachers better understand how to be good teachers, particularly those in the precious years of early childhood.  This passion also applies to my callings at Church.  I have held various teaching callings... Gospel Doctrine, Valiants, Relief Society... but now I have been given a calling that allows me to not just utilize my understanding of teaching, but my understanding of teaching precious little children.