I started teaching math at St. Thomas Aquinas the fall of 9/11. That was 2001. I love math. I found it helped me make a name for myself when I was a technician on the factory floor many years ago. Management was puzzled about how to figure the capacity of their burn-in chambers. Math gave me the answers. I shared my results. I advanced.

My employer paid for my education up through graduate school (Master of Science in Engineering). This schooling allowed me to work my way up the ranks of engineering to Principal Engineer and then on to management positions, as far as Director of Engineering for a large contract manufacturing corporation by the time I jumped into education as a teacher.

Along the way I found myself being the first woman or the only woman in many instances. This has given me a particular interest in escaping the gender stereotypes and allowing each person to pursue what matters most to them, remembering to build a full set of skills along the way.

The particular skill I like to see developed is mathematical reasoning. As a teen, I had never imagined myself as an engineer. Yet when I entered an environment that contained engineering, I found that the math I had liked solely for its beauty had very practical, and lucrative, applications. I emphasize to my students that they continue with their study of mathematics because you never know what door math might help you open!