I began my teaching career teaching undergraduate Microbiology laboratories as a teaching assistant at the University of South Carolina while working on my master’s degree in Biology. It was such a positive experience that I changed my degree to a Master’s of Arts in Teaching. After receiving my degree I taught high school science in Atlanta, Georgia for eight years. After eight years in two very different schools I felt I was no longer growing and developing. Thus, I returned to graduate school and earned my doctorate in Genetics and Molecular Biology from Emory University after which I accepted a post-doctoral fellowship to analyze nuclear transport factor protein 2 (NTF2) and its role in cell cycle regulation in the laboratory of Dr. Anita Corbett in the Biochemistry Department at Emory. During the first year of my post-doctoral appointment I taught a section of undergraduate Genetics to fill in for a professor on sabbatical. Three years after starting my post-doc, my family re-located to the D.C. area and I accepted a post-doctoral position at the National Institutes of Health in Dr. Mary Dasso’s laboratory where I used both yeast and mammalian model systems to further study the role of NTF2 in cell cycle regulation.

In the Fall of 2005, I was given the opportunity to teach Biology part time at Sidwell Upper School, while maintaining a part-time position at the NIH. This re-entry into education renewed my interest in teaching and in the fall of 2006 I accepted a full time lecturer position with the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Maryland (UMD) where I taught a variety of upper level Genetics and Cell Biology courses.

In August of 2011, I accepted the position of Associate Director of the new Integrated Life Sciences Living Learning Honors Program (ILS) at UMD.  This new position integrates students affairs, university administration and teaching, presenting new challenges and opportunities for me to grow professionally while allowing me to continue to teach---my first love.