As a native Floridian from Winter Haven, our town was centered around beautiful Cypress Gardens and the chain-of-lakes. When I realized I was bestowed absolutely no talent for water skiing, psychology became and continues to be one of my life passions. 

I completed my undergraduate work at University of Maryland University College with a major in psychology and minors in sociology and English. I completed my last two years of undergraduate psychology work in Europe - backpacking through Freud's homeland in Vienna, Austria, exploring Italian history and culture while in Italy, and completing my study of psychology in Germany.

After graduation, I moved back to the United States and settled in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to attend graduate school at Lehigh University. While at Lehigh, my passion for teaching psychology, researching psychology, and providing psychological treatment crystallized and was cultivated. I also worked as a psychological therapist in the Muhlenberg College Counseling Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I concentrated on brief and in-depth individual psychotherapy, group therapy, and educational programs in psychology.

Since 2003, I have enjoyed teaching psychology at St. Petersburg College. My philosophy of education, as it specifically relates to St. Petersburg College, focuses on presenting the Psychology curriculum in an effective, creative, intellectually compelling, and ethical manner that promotes not only the students' mastery of course content, but enhances their personal and professional development. In addition, I believe that it is essential to create a dynamic, structured, interactive, stimulating, and mutually accountable environment that is conducive to critical thinking and creative exploration. As importantly, I enthusiastically plan lectures and active learning activities that engage students in the process of learning psychology. Each semester, I look forward to the interactive journey of knowing my students well while they actively explore the compelling field of psychology.

Above all, my most rewarding, expansive, fulfilling, and growth-oriented roles in life are rooted within the beauty of family and friends. I realize my richest understanding of psychology is through living, loving, and experiencing.