Director, Inspired and Purposeful Lives
Valor Collegiate Academies

U.S.: Tennessee Hub | NORTH AMERICA

A self-professed literacy wonk, I am the proud mother of three children–one, six, and nine, respectively–and married to a fellow educator. After graduating from Northwestern University in 2005, I relocated to Los Angeles and taught English as a Second Language at an LA Unified high school and earned my master’s in education at Loyola Marymount. After teaching in southern California for several years, I returned to Chicago to teach and lead professional development at the Noble Network of Charter Schools. My partner’s career path, also one of school leadership, eventually took us to Nashville, where I held roles in instructional coaching, curriculum design, and as an adjunct professor for Relay’s Graduate School Education. Most recently, I have spent the last seven years at Valor Collegiate Academies, a socioemotional and diverse-by-design school model in Nashville, serving as their Director of Academics and, later, as the Associate Head of Valor’s flagship high school.

After calling Nashville home for eight years, my family and I moved back to the Chicago area, where I am fortunate enough to still work for Valor in a remote capacity. I am about to embark on my second year as Valor’s Director of Inspired and Purposeful Lives, a role in which I have designed and oversee our school’s college counseling program, and I lead research and development on experiential learning modules within each grade-level. In my spare time and fueled by copious amounts of coffee, I am shuttling my children to and from their activities, trying to learn how to grow and maintain a garden, and beginning to train for a half marathon–my goal before turning 40 this October!