• A.A., Southeastern Illinois College
• B.A. in English, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
• M.A. in English, Old Dominion University
• Ph.D. in English, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

I come from a long line of teachers. My dad was a teacher, and his dad was a teacher. His dad’s dad was a teacher, too, and so were several aunts and uncles. I first stepped into a classroom to teach when I was a graduate student in 2001 and I have loved it ever since. At VU, I’ve taught basic writing classes, first-year composition, World Fiction, Introduction to Literature, and English literature surveys. I love that teaching at VU gives me the chance to work closely with students to help them become better writers!