Comments:
After high school I went to Concordia College in Moorhead, MN and graduated in 2001 with a degree in elementary education. While at college I spent a semester working in Walt Disney World as a tour guide. I also spend 5 weeks in Europe traveling and seeing the sights. After college I moved to Bozeman for a year where I had a series of unsatifying jobs. In 2002, I moved to Great Falls and began teaching. My husband Glen and I were married in 2005. I taught in Great Falls until 2010, when we moved to Guam. We were there for 3 years, where I also taught 5th grade and kindergarten at a Department of Defense school. In 2013 we moved to Minot, ND. i taught preschool for awhile and then moved to Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, where I taught students with severe emotional and behavioral problems. In September 2015, we moved to Ontonagon, Michigan. I was the Great Start Collaborative Director then moved into a new position as Early Childhood Director. I didn't care for that position for many reasons, so in 2017, I resigned and became the special education teacher for Ontonagon Elementary School. I completed my Master's Degree in Curriculum/Instruction/Assessment in 2013, and Ed.S. in Educational Leadership in 2016, a Masters in Special Education in 2020, and a Masters in Behavior Analysis and Autism in 2023.
I have had a very challenging year, as I was diagnosed with chiari malformation, tethered cord, and communicating hydrocephalus, all within the past 18 months. I had brain surgery in January 2022, to treat the chiari malformation, where they removed a portion of my skull, cut the lining of my brain, and placed a patch over the opened spot to give my brain more room. I had tethered cord (spinal cord) release surgery in September 2022 to allow my spinal cord more movement within my spinal column. I will be having another brain surgery in February or March, 2023, to have a shunt placed in my brain to manage the hydrocephalus.
