Biography

I have always been interested in teaching. When posed the “what do you want to be when you grow up?” question in my youth, my answer was usually: high school teacher (once I accepted that professional soccer player was probably out of the question).

I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah and graduated from Utah Valley University with a B.S. in finance. I recently passed the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) Level I Exam, a test that covers ten financial topic areas and requires 300 hours of study. After spending some time as an equity research analyst for investment portfolios, I decided I wanted a career and returned to working in education.

Among the many jobs I did during my college years, my two favorites involved teaching and tutoring. I worked for 2 years as a Spanish language instructor at a volunteer training center, helping young adults reach intermediate proficiency. I also spent a semester at my university’s business school tutoring lab, where I helped students with finance, statistics, accounting, and economics courses.

I am passionate about teaching and education in general. I love the chance to help students come to a conceptual
understanding of a topic and to help them see the real-world relevance in the skills they are developing. One of my favorite practices is to giving students a chance to explain a concept back to me in their own words; I’ve found that teaching is one of the best ways to learn and retain.

In my free time, I enjoy hiking, reading novels, and learning new things by watching documentaries.