My passion for working with students stems from my own struggles as a young person in school. My inspiration to serve others by assisting them in achieving their educational goals is sourced in my desire to see them conquer the same obstacles with which I was confronted at the time and successfully overcame. My experience includes time as a full-time substitute teacher, a youth minister and religious teacher, a professional private tutor, a personal mentor, and a clinical child therapist.

My bachelor's level education consists of a degree in Religion in 2007, and Mathematics (in progress). I possess a Master's Degree in Psychology (including clinical foci) and I am currently pursuing a Ph.D in Human Development (yes, the B.A. and Ph.D at the same time).

My teaching philosophy can be summarized using the acronym DALFPA, or Dynamically Attuned Lesson Flexibility and Plan Adjustment. Each lesson plan I design for utilization with a student is constructed in light of the student's stated goals. Throughout the tutoring session, I engage that student in a dynamic process wherein I continually monitor the tenor and direction of the lesson by remaining attuned to both verbal and nonverbal communication to gather a sense of how well the student is feeling in terms of confidence, frustration, excitement, apathy, etc, and not only by attending to the material itself. Lesson flexibility occurs when we encounter unexpected problems with these types of issues (or with the material). An adjustment to the lesson plan is then made. I understand this change to be a step in the right direction, not a setback. Everyone's individual learning path toward concept mastery is different and he/she will not successfully arrive there if we are in a rush merely to complete a lesson plan or if we allow negative thoughts and poor self-esteem sabotage motivation to engage the material.

Subjects with which I am most familiar and on which I have demonstrated the greatest proficiency are: any topic within psychology, math from Kindergarten through pre-Algebra, Algebra I and II, Pre-Calculus, Trigonometry, high school Statistics, college Intro to Stat (non-calculus based) or AP Statistics, high school government and AP Government or college Intro to Government, and writing/essay editing at any stage of education through the Ph.D level.