Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to learn about me! I am a linguist, teacher, photographer, quilter, singer, and so much more. I was born in upstate New York but have lived most of my life in New England, primarily Massachusetts, where I live now. I have also lived in Virginia and California, as well as Norway (as an exchange student) and Bulgaria (as a Peace Corps Volunteer). I have a BA in Linguistics and Music (double major) and a Master’s in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. I speak Norwegian and Bulgarian well enough to have been mistaken for a native speaker of each, and I’ve also studied several other languages to various levels of proficiency.
Professionally, I taught English to Speakers of Other Languages in independent schools for many years. I’ve also done freelance work on textbooks and other educational materials for several publishers, including Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. While I was still teaching, I also conducted professional development workshops for nearly 20 independent schools on the topic of working with English language learners in content classrooms. I made the switch to corporate instructional design in 2021 and led a team of five in producing educational (training and support) materials for a medical software company.
My current extracurricular projects are:
- Developing my photography skills. All of the photos you see on this site were taken by me, except for those that I’m in. I am stretching my skills in Adobe Lightroom and revisiting some of the photos that I’ve taken over the last 15 years to develop them even further into the realm of “art.”
- Turning photographs into quilts. Sometimes literally, but mostly in the abstract. I’ve printed my photos onto fabric, but I’ve also used images as inspiration for quilts as well. I developed a presentation about these quilts as well. You can learn more about that in my blog!
- Figuring out how to make classical music, especially live performances of choral music, more accessible to new listeners. This project is in the early stages, but it’s exciting and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with it!