My Background
My career as a teacher began when my first child was born. She was smart, creative, and confident when she entered kindergarten, and it didn’t make sense that she could not learn to read. Her confidence plummeted and she would ask why she wasn’t as smart as her friends. I would pray in the pick-up line at school that she would not be in tears and that she would have found some sense of accomplishment that day. Soon, her sister began to struggle as well. We found that the girls were dyslexic and that began my path to find out how to help them overcome their learning differences.
I volunteered for five years in the Learning Enrichment Center at All Saints Episcopal School before going back to UT Tyler to get my teaching certificate. I was trained at The Shelton School in Dallas to become a Certified Academic Language Practitioner. Afterward, I helped to start Bridgemark Center for Learning, a school in Tyler that teaches with explicit, systematic, and multisensory programs to help students with learning differences reach their potential. I served as Bridgemark’s Upper and Middle School Director and sixth grade teacher.
In 2020, I moved to Longview and became the Director of Student Learning and
Instructional Support at the Trinity School of Texas. I attended UT Tyler to receive
my masters in special education with an educational diagnostician certificate. My mission is to help students discover their strengths, improve their skills, teach them how they learn, build their confidence, and empower them to reach their goals. My oldest daughter has completed graduate school and is a
licensed professional counselor and her sister is currently in
graduate school and applying to doctoral programs. With the right intervention,
students can experience confidence and success!
Education, Certifications, and Memberships
- BBA-Accounting, Texas A&M University, 1987
- Certified Public Accountant, 1988
- Post-Baccalaureate Teaching Certificate, UT Tyler, 2012
- Certified Academic Language Practitioner, 2014
- M.Ed. Special Education, UT Tyler, 2023
- Certified Educational Diagnostician, 2023
- Member, International Dyslexia Association
- Member, Academic Language Therapy Association
- Member, Texas Educational Diagnosticians’ Association
