I am a native of the Washington, DC area, born in Silver Spring, MD. I attended Montgomery County Public Schools, graduating from Kennedy High School in 1983 and from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1987, with a BA in Government. I interned with the program instructors at the Close Up Foundation during my senior year at Maryland, and after graduation I served as a legislative assistant for the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) and the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA). I went back to school a year after graduation, and completed my M.Ed from Marymount in 1989. I love being a teacher as much as I love being a wife and mom! In my free time, my husband and I love to take our energetic Newfoundland puppy, Calixte, to the Chesapeake Bay and dream about our eventual retirement in a tiny town by the water. Our kiddos, a son and daughter, graduated from STM in 2006 and 2007, followed by graduation from Bishop Ireton in 2010 and 2011.