I attended the University of Georgia and received a Bachelor's in English Education and a Master's in English and Gifted Education. As a high school student, I attended the Georgia Governor's Honors Program in Communicative Arts.  I received my high school diploma at Sprayberry High School in Marietta, Georgia.  Currently, I am working on an add-on certificate to my Master's at Kennesaw State University in Creative Nonfiction, through their Master's in Professional Writing Program.  

I have been teaching at Chestnut Log Middle School for six years. Before coming to Chestnut Log, I taught English and ESOL at the high school level.  I also served as the Academic Coordinator for the Duke University Talent Identification Program at the Texas A and M Campus.  At this job, I had the privilege of supervising instructors who taught highly gifted students, and their creative methods still influence my teaching today.  During the summer of 2005, I completed the Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project training at Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project, which gave me a background in writer's workshop and taught me innovative methods of writing instruction.  During the summer of 2007, I had the privilege of facilitating the Douglas County Writing Institute and got to work with talented teachers throughout the county.  I have also taught English to pastors in China and Creative Writing to middle school students through the Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project's Young Writer's Camp.  I have written reviews on young adult and middle grades novels for Kennesaw State University's SIGNAL Journal.  I am a member of the Georgia Writer's Association and the Atlanta Writer's Club.  In Spring 2010, my essay took third in the Atlanta Writer's Club contest in the "Spiritual/Inspirational" category.  I love to write and to teach writing to students.  

I grew up in Flint, Michigan, and have lived in Georgia for nineteen years.  Since I was very young, I have had a passion for reading and writing and often wrote stories that were very long for a person my age.  During college, I participated in leadership programs and worked as a camp counselor.  Both of these experiences inspired me to want to teach middle school students.