Biography

Pick any moment in my life and diagram it like a sentence, and you will likely find a verb that represents a quest for understanding. While I have thoroughly enjoyed most academic subjects, my passion has always been mathematics, probably because of the promise that its truth is so findable. I have always found that working with others to search out patterns and solve puzzles carries high rewards. Along my path I have learned with and tutored classmates; coached my own children; trained and mentored people and teams in the IT space; and facilitated learning of life skills (baking, needlework, and leadership) in youth ages 5-19 through the 4-H program and its concept of learning-by-doing. My great joys have been in helping people understand the basic building blocks for a skill and then watching the “aha” moment where the why becomes clear and they see that they have everything they need to take the skill in their own amazing directions.

I spent my childhood in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where I explored wide-open spaces and enjoyed a family life rich with hiking, berry-picking, kitchen midden treasure hunting, and free-range exploring. I spent my high school and early adult years in Alaska, where I appreciated the wealth of worldviews and the frontier culture of open-minded thinking. My first college venture was at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, studying the Great Books (Euclid, Plato, Greek language), followed by time studying anthropology in Alaska. I ultimately moved to California to start my family and complete my college education, and I earned a B.A. in mathematics from San Jose State University. 

All the changes in my educational path meant that I repeatedly taught myself a lot of material, and I bring the skills I developed to my tutoring sessions to help students learn that we are each truly responsible for our own learning and that there are no end of creative strategies, resources, and allies out there to help us on the way. Through my experiences teaching, mentoring, training, and coaching, I have found that the most useful approach is a thoughtful, customized conversation that builds on the learner’s goals and challenges. This evolving conversation can help us identify tools we already have in common and a scaffolding from which to work.

When I am not at work, I enjoy jigsaw puzzles, cooking of all sorts, connecting with family, long walks with aging dogs, and a wide variety of volunteer roles with the 4-H program.