BIOGRAPHY

I am a mother of two children who attend Zionsville Community Schools: they started at Stonegate, and are now at Trailside and ZWest. I'm an assistant professor of literacy and language education at Purdue University's College of Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. I teach teachers how to teach reading and writing to young children. As a literacy researcher I also manage large scale grant projects and million dollar budgets.  I earned my PhD in Education from a nationally-ranked program at Indiana University.  Prior to higher education, I was a K-2 classroom teacher and a literacy coach in mostly high needs urban schools in the midwest and east coast.  I am a native Hoosier from southern Indiana where I attended Eastern Greene public schools K-12.  I come from a family of educators: my mom taught kindergarten and Special Education for her 30+ year career, and my brother is a classroom instructional aide.