I am a graduate of Colby College in ME receiving a B.A. degree in Government with history as a minor. I subsequently received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Catholic University's School of Law in Washington, D.C. After a lengthy career as a practicing attorney in both private and public law, I pursued one of my life's goals ever since college to become a full time teacher.

I come from a family of educators in English, history, math, science, and special education. We all share a lifelong passion for learning and teaching and instilling these passions to generations of students.

I subsequently became a tenured 7-12th grade public school social studies teacher with a permanent teacher certification in 7-12 social studies. In my 18 year public school secondary education teaching career, I primarily taught 7th & 8th grade U.S History and Government, 11th grade U.S. History & Government; Government, 12th grade Government, 12th grade Economics, and high school Criminal Justice. I also tutored in high school U.S. History & Government and Global/World History academic services' intervention classes and in 7th/8th ELA academic intervention classes. I also taught three years of 9th grade English. For three years I was a high school debate coach and I also started and coached a successful high school mock trial team for seven years.

While a 7-12 social studies teacher, I also became a successful adjunct college instructor at a local community college for 20 years teaching in its Business Department in its paralegal program teaching law courses such as Real Property Law and Law of Business Organizations together with teaching Business I & II to upper level general Business major and paralegal students.

My teaching philosophy is that learning is a lifelong process with many immediate and long term rewards. Advancing one's education is a vital goal in life, as it will enrich you in immeasurable ways. I've used a student-centered approach to teaching recognizing that there are different learning styles. I've emphasized reading, writing, including constructive responses, thematic and document based essays and papers, and critical thinking skills. I also believe and instilled in my students the belief that not always being a "natural" standardized "test taker" does not mean that one cannot still be successful on one's quizzes, tests, and writing assignments, whether on a 7-12th grade or college level. In addition to learning one's course's curriculum, one can learn many test-taking strategies for objective and written type questions that work and can help a student to improve their learning and grades so that they can be more successful in their courses. As a teacher and tutor, I am motivated to help students learn these strategies together with better understanding their course curriculum.

Based on my overall background, including my education and teaching experience, my specific interests and academic strengths are in U.S. History, constitutional law, concepts, and principles, Government/Politics, Business Law, Criminal Justice and other law-related curriculum, and Economics, together with reading, writing, critical thinking, and test taking skills.

In addition to serving as an advisor to many in school student activities in my teaching career, I have volunteered in lifelong service activities in my community such as kids' running races and captaining a team of fellow sports' club members in a local ride/run/walk fundraiser for cancer care. I have also been teaching a seven week course I developed in the past year on the U.S. Supreme Court for adult lifelong learners.