Professional Roots
After earning an Associate of Arts degree in Agriculture-Forestry at Glendale Community College and finishing my Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Natural Resources Management/Public Administration and a minor in Geology at Northern Arizona University, I achieved my long-time dream of working as a park ranger. I worked for a number of years with Arizona State Parks and the National Park Service. I spent a great deal of time on the Colorado River working at both Lake Havasu and Bucksin Mountain State Parks. In addition, I worked as an intern at Riordan Mansion State Park and Sunset Crater, Wupatki, and Saguaro National Monuments. I am also proud to say that in 1981, I became the first female park ranger to be employed at Catalina State Park, working with my colleagues Neil Donkersley, Gary Kuhn, Mike Edgington, and Dan Crangle on the Park's original ranger crew!
My Entry into the Field of Education
In 1985, with the encouragement of my friend, Bill Watt, I decided to leave my position with Arizona State Parks to gain the requisite education to qualify for the Information and Education Program Manager position with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. I went back to school and earned a post-baccalaureate teaching certificate from the University of Arizona in 1986. Unfortunately, the state of Arizona was in the throes of an economic depression, and Arizona Game and Fish eliminated the Information and Education Program Manager position, and my Park Ranger position with Arizona State Parks was indefinitely frozen.
I decided to pursue a teaching position and became an elementary bilingual teacher with Sunnyside School District. (Imagine that, the teacher’s worst nightmare went on to become one of them!) That first year was tough, but I shared a classroom with twenty-seven of
the sweetest and most amazing children I have ever known. These exceptional youngsters taught me so very much that year, not the least of which was acceptance, affirmation, and how important a teacher can be in the lives of her students. I loved teaching and decided to remain in the profession that I had come to love.
My Career Path
Throughout my career in education, which now spans nearly three decades, I have chosen to accept positions that have allowed me to continually challenge and expand my abilities while affording me the opportunity to be exposed to variance in experiences and perspectives within the realm of education at a global level. My teaching assignments, academic appointments, and academic fellowships have supported the development of a full appreciation and understanding of the education process from pre-school through post-secondary institutions at the local, regional, national, and global level. In fact, my career has led me to learning opportunities and K-12, community college, and university teaching positions on the high deserts of the Navajo Nation, to the barrios of Tucson, to the western shore of the Colorado River, to the mountains of Flagstaff, to the ancient communities of the Anatolian Peninsula, to Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, all the way to the rolling hills of Victoria’s Yarra Valley, where I served for a year as Arizona’s International Teaching Fellow to Australia.
In 1997, my career brought me to an instructional faculty position with Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona, where I spent my first 11 years teaching ESL, working as the lead faculty member in ESL and as the Department Chair of World Languages, and enjoying my students immensely. The following 9 years were spent helping to prepare professional educators in PCC's Teacher Education Program. I am proud to say that after working with some of the finest pre-service teachers in our country, I can honestly rebut the detractors of education when they complain that the best and the brightest no longer enter the field of education, the students with whom I have had the privilege to work are living proof that they are oh, so wrong! After 20 years at Pima, I felt it was time to expand my professional experiences in higher education and began to look for opportunities that would further challenge me and allow me to grow as an individual and professional.
In 2017, I was so very fortunate to be offered a faculty position with Estrella Mountain Community College, where I work with pre-service educators helping them to prepare for careers as professional educators. I look forward to working with outstanding colleagues at one of the nation's premier institutions for many years to come!
In each of the professional positions I have held, I have learned to value, affirm, and positively respond to the wonderfully rich diversity represented in educational communities. The insights I have gained concerning the various aspects of cultural, social, experiential, and intellectual interactions represented in learning environments have bolstered my passion for education and made me an even greater supporter of public education at all levels and, most especially, community colleges.
I am a multi-faceted, multi-talented person. My background is diverse, and has prepared me to assume positions of academic leadership that draw on a wide range of workforce and academic experiences. I actually started out, many years ago, on a very different life path. After graduating from Maryvale High School, I enrolled at my local community college, Glendale, which is a part of the Maricopa Community College District for which I now work. With the support of so many excellent instructors and student service professionals, I graduated with an Associate of Arts degree in Agriculture and transferred to Northern Arizona University, where I earned a degree in Natural Resources Management and Public Administration. I went on to become a park ranger and was one of the first women in this state to ever do so. In fact, I was the first female ranger ever assigned to Catalina State Park, where I served on the Park’s first ranger crew prior to its opening to the public. As a ranger with expertise in interpretation, I dedicated myself to educating the public, a responsibility that I dearly loved. My fields of expertise ranged from ecology and anthropology to boating laws and safety. I chose to work in parks across the state of Arizona that allowed me to hone my interpersonal and interpretive skills as well as my leadership abilities. It was through my first career in Natural Resources Management, working as a ranger for Arizona State Parks, that I gained a tremendous breadth of managerial and leadership experience by performing a wide range of duties that prepared me to be a fair, reasonable, inclusive leader with a collegial, collaborative, and consultative management style. Through my work for the Parks Department, I developed the ability to utilize informed, strategic processes in shared decision-making, in short- and long-term planning, and in the development and implementation of consistent, equitable, and ethical policies, practices, and processes.
It was my desire to become Arizona Game and Fish Department’s educational outreach coordinator that brought me to the field of Education. The position required that I obtain a teaching credential; so, like many before me, I began my pathway to teacher certification as a student at a local community college. In 1982, I enrolled in several courses that would allow me to begin earning a teaching certificate. The employees of the college were both helpful and encouraging, and my instructors were top-notch. From the moment I walked into my first teaching methods class, I recognized that I had a new calling and a new passion – education.
When I needed to bolster my education, it was a community college that opened its welcoming doors to me and became my portal to a new career, one that has taken me on an incredible, life-long adventure and has led to personal and professional opportunities I never dreamed possible. I owe a great deal to community colleges and the communities that create, nurture, support, and sustain them. For more than twenty years, as a committed instructor and faculty leader, I have chosen to dedicate myself to working as a community college educator to support the community college mission AND communities that embrace their colleges. Throughout my tenure as a college instructor, I assumed positions of leadership at the department, campus, and college level, as well as within the community, building strong collegial relationships, networks of support, and cherished friendships while developing additional abilities that support my leadership and managerial skills. I am proud to say that I have been highly regarded by students and colleagues alike, and that, on a regular basis, have been recognized and affirmed as a trusted, cooperative, inclusive educator and educational leader.
Professional Goals
Over the course of my professional careers, I have held positions of leadership. As a Natural Resources Manager and Park Ranger for the state of Arizona, I supported the management of resources and personnel in the parks to which I was assigned. I wrote and managed a number of successful grants for improvements on the parks. As the Lead Faculty Member in both English as a Second Language and Education, as well as the Department Chair of World Languages and Education, I have been groomed and mentored for leadership roles within the College. I have assumed leadership positions with increasingly complex managerial and administrative related responsibilities within multi-campus, multi-faceted institutions of higher education. In addition, since 2007, I have served on the governing board of a local public charter high school, Sky Islands High. As a board member and board chair, I have engaged in even more complex institutional processes and procedures, while assuming tremendous accountability as a steward of public funds and resources. In my affiliation with Sky Islands, I have gained a deeper understanding of and commitment to ethical, legal, fiscal, academic, and curricular accountability. Perhaps more than in any previous position, this appointment has prepared me to better understand and the complex and extensive duties of a curricular leader.
As my career progresses, I aspire to assume even more complex duties as a curricular leader as part of a collaborative curricular team. I offer a rich and varied educational background from which to draw in developing, delivering, and improving cutting-edge educational opportunities for pre-service teachers.
My Commitment to the Field of Education
As this page suggests, I am, and always have been, a public servant. I am committed to the highest standards of working for the common ideals of society and for social justice. I have chosen to accept positions with agencies and institutions populated by stewards of the future. Professionals in these institutions invest in the resources of the present to ensure a brighter future for us all. As a park ranger, I worked to conserve, protect, and preserve the state’s natural, historic, recreational, and scenic resources, not only for our children, but also for many future generations of our children’s children. As a public school teacher and a college instructor, I have worked diligently to support our students and their success. In supporting the hopes, the dreams, and the goals of our students, I am investing in not only their futures, but in our collective future as well.
After earning an Associate of Arts degree in Agriculture-Forestry at Glendale Community College and finishing my Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Natural Resources Management/Public Administration and a minor in Geology at Northern Arizona University, I achieved my long-time dream of working as a park ranger. I worked for a number of years with Arizona State Parks and the National Park Service. I spent a great deal of time on the Colorado River working at both Lake Havasu and Bucksin Mountain State Parks. In addition, I worked as an intern at Riordan Mansion State Park and Sunset Crater, Wupatki, and Saguaro National Monuments. I am also proud to say that in 1981, I became the first female park ranger to be employed at Catalina State Park, working with my colleagues Neil Donkersley, Gary Kuhn, Mike Edgington, and Dan Crangle on the Park's original ranger crew!
My Entry into the Field of Education
In 1985, with the encouragement of my friend, Bill Watt, I decided to leave my position with Arizona State Parks to gain the requisite education to qualify for the Information and Education Program Manager position with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. I went back to school and earned a post-baccalaureate teaching certificate from the University of Arizona in 1986. Unfortunately, the state of Arizona was in the throes of an economic depression, and Arizona Game and Fish eliminated the Information and Education Program Manager position, and my Park Ranger position with Arizona State Parks was indefinitely frozen.
I decided to pursue a teaching position and became an elementary bilingual teacher with Sunnyside School District. (Imagine that, the teacher’s worst nightmare went on to become one of them!) That first year was tough, but I shared a classroom with twenty-seven of
the sweetest and most amazing children I have ever known. These exceptional youngsters taught me so very much that year, not the least of which was acceptance, affirmation, and how important a teacher can be in the lives of her students. I loved teaching and decided to remain in the profession that I had come to love.
My Career Path
Throughout my career in education, which now spans nearly three decades, I have chosen to accept positions that have allowed me to continually challenge and expand my abilities while affording me the opportunity to be exposed to variance in experiences and perspectives within the realm of education at a global level. My teaching assignments, academic appointments, and academic fellowships have supported the development of a full appreciation and understanding of the education process from pre-school through post-secondary institutions at the local, regional, national, and global level. In fact, my career has led me to learning opportunities and K-12, community college, and university teaching positions on the high deserts of the Navajo Nation, to the barrios of Tucson, to the western shore of the Colorado River, to the mountains of Flagstaff, to the ancient communities of the Anatolian Peninsula, to Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, all the way to the rolling hills of Victoria’s Yarra Valley, where I served for a year as Arizona’s International Teaching Fellow to Australia.
In 1997, my career brought me to an instructional faculty position with Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona, where I spent my first 11 years teaching ESL, working as the lead faculty member in ESL and as the Department Chair of World Languages, and enjoying my students immensely. The following 9 years were spent helping to prepare professional educators in PCC's Teacher Education Program. I am proud to say that after working with some of the finest pre-service teachers in our country, I can honestly rebut the detractors of education when they complain that the best and the brightest no longer enter the field of education, the students with whom I have had the privilege to work are living proof that they are oh, so wrong! After 20 years at Pima, I felt it was time to expand my professional experiences in higher education and began to look for opportunities that would further challenge me and allow me to grow as an individual and professional.
In 2017, I was so very fortunate to be offered a faculty position with Estrella Mountain Community College, where I work with pre-service educators helping them to prepare for careers as professional educators. I look forward to working with outstanding colleagues at one of the nation's premier institutions for many years to come!
In each of the professional positions I have held, I have learned to value, affirm, and positively respond to the wonderfully rich diversity represented in educational communities. The insights I have gained concerning the various aspects of cultural, social, experiential, and intellectual interactions represented in learning environments have bolstered my passion for education and made me an even greater supporter of public education at all levels and, most especially, community colleges.
I am a multi-faceted, multi-talented person. My background is diverse, and has prepared me to assume positions of academic leadership that draw on a wide range of workforce and academic experiences. I actually started out, many years ago, on a very different life path. After graduating from Maryvale High School, I enrolled at my local community college, Glendale, which is a part of the Maricopa Community College District for which I now work. With the support of so many excellent instructors and student service professionals, I graduated with an Associate of Arts degree in Agriculture and transferred to Northern Arizona University, where I earned a degree in Natural Resources Management and Public Administration. I went on to become a park ranger and was one of the first women in this state to ever do so. In fact, I was the first female ranger ever assigned to Catalina State Park, where I served on the Park’s first ranger crew prior to its opening to the public. As a ranger with expertise in interpretation, I dedicated myself to educating the public, a responsibility that I dearly loved. My fields of expertise ranged from ecology and anthropology to boating laws and safety. I chose to work in parks across the state of Arizona that allowed me to hone my interpersonal and interpretive skills as well as my leadership abilities. It was through my first career in Natural Resources Management, working as a ranger for Arizona State Parks, that I gained a tremendous breadth of managerial and leadership experience by performing a wide range of duties that prepared me to be a fair, reasonable, inclusive leader with a collegial, collaborative, and consultative management style. Through my work for the Parks Department, I developed the ability to utilize informed, strategic processes in shared decision-making, in short- and long-term planning, and in the development and implementation of consistent, equitable, and ethical policies, practices, and processes.
It was my desire to become Arizona Game and Fish Department’s educational outreach coordinator that brought me to the field of Education. The position required that I obtain a teaching credential; so, like many before me, I began my pathway to teacher certification as a student at a local community college. In 1982, I enrolled in several courses that would allow me to begin earning a teaching certificate. The employees of the college were both helpful and encouraging, and my instructors were top-notch. From the moment I walked into my first teaching methods class, I recognized that I had a new calling and a new passion – education.
When I needed to bolster my education, it was a community college that opened its welcoming doors to me and became my portal to a new career, one that has taken me on an incredible, life-long adventure and has led to personal and professional opportunities I never dreamed possible. I owe a great deal to community colleges and the communities that create, nurture, support, and sustain them. For more than twenty years, as a committed instructor and faculty leader, I have chosen to dedicate myself to working as a community college educator to support the community college mission AND communities that embrace their colleges. Throughout my tenure as a college instructor, I assumed positions of leadership at the department, campus, and college level, as well as within the community, building strong collegial relationships, networks of support, and cherished friendships while developing additional abilities that support my leadership and managerial skills. I am proud to say that I have been highly regarded by students and colleagues alike, and that, on a regular basis, have been recognized and affirmed as a trusted, cooperative, inclusive educator and educational leader.
Professional Goals
Over the course of my professional careers, I have held positions of leadership. As a Natural Resources Manager and Park Ranger for the state of Arizona, I supported the management of resources and personnel in the parks to which I was assigned. I wrote and managed a number of successful grants for improvements on the parks. As the Lead Faculty Member in both English as a Second Language and Education, as well as the Department Chair of World Languages and Education, I have been groomed and mentored for leadership roles within the College. I have assumed leadership positions with increasingly complex managerial and administrative related responsibilities within multi-campus, multi-faceted institutions of higher education. In addition, since 2007, I have served on the governing board of a local public charter high school, Sky Islands High. As a board member and board chair, I have engaged in even more complex institutional processes and procedures, while assuming tremendous accountability as a steward of public funds and resources. In my affiliation with Sky Islands, I have gained a deeper understanding of and commitment to ethical, legal, fiscal, academic, and curricular accountability. Perhaps more than in any previous position, this appointment has prepared me to better understand and the complex and extensive duties of a curricular leader.
As my career progresses, I aspire to assume even more complex duties as a curricular leader as part of a collaborative curricular team. I offer a rich and varied educational background from which to draw in developing, delivering, and improving cutting-edge educational opportunities for pre-service teachers.
My Commitment to the Field of Education
As this page suggests, I am, and always have been, a public servant. I am committed to the highest standards of working for the common ideals of society and for social justice. I have chosen to accept positions with agencies and institutions populated by stewards of the future. Professionals in these institutions invest in the resources of the present to ensure a brighter future for us all. As a park ranger, I worked to conserve, protect, and preserve the state’s natural, historic, recreational, and scenic resources, not only for our children, but also for many future generations of our children’s children. As a public school teacher and a college instructor, I have worked diligently to support our students and their success. In supporting the hopes, the dreams, and the goals of our students, I am investing in not only their futures, but in our collective future as well.
