I am a teacher. It was not an easy or straightforward path that led me to this realization. As a student at Brown University I majored in math, an inevitable choice as math seems to be in my blood. My mother, father, and brother all majored in math and, even though I was lured by political science, I could not deny the inevitable. Upon graduation I still did not know where life would take me. I moved to Washington, D.C., to work for a major law firm where I managed a research project and learned a great deal about managing people, data, and my time. I thought law was my destiny, but realized all too quickly that it was not. I then began tutoring for a small firm. When the firm's owner decided to go back to business school, I took over her business for a year and eventually started my own small tutoring business outside of Boston. While these efforts were successful, I found that something was still missing. Tutoring allowed me to "do" math and work with teenagers, two things I loved, but the work was, by nature, results-oriented and client-determined. Getting the correct answer was tantamount; knowing why that answer was right was often forgotten. That was just too large a piece of the learning puzzle for me to forget. I realized that I wanted to teach students not just what and how, but also why. Although it was obvious to many before I began my journey of self discovery, it was now so clear to me that I was meant to be a teacher.

I went back to school and earned my master's degree in secondary math education from Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of Education and Human Development. Teaching was everything I wanted it to be and yet I had never worked so hard in my life. I took on more than just my classroom and teaching duties, working beyond the walls of my classroom. I evaluated and designed curricula, even building a course from scratch for some of the neediest students in my school. I became interested and involved in school evaluations, participating in both state and regional evaluation and accreditation visits. These experiences led me to take on a leadership role when it was time for my school to be evaluated.

In my first few years as a teacher, I was so caught up in my students, teaching, and often just keeping my head above water that I did not have time to see the bigger picture. My focus was a narrow one confined to the walls of my classroom. As I worked with my students and learned more about schools and education, my view broadened. I became increasingly concerned about all that my colleagues and I wanted to do with and for our students but were, in the end, unable to do. These concerns caused me to search for a solution far outside my classroom walls. They led me to pursue a degree in public policy at the University of Michigan.

I am now uniquely equipped with knowledge of both sides of the education policy debate and I feel that the Teaching Ambassador Fellowship is a perfect fit. I am returning to the classroom because my students and teaching are still my passion; but, the Teaching Ambassador Fellowship allows me to learn about and be involved in another passion, which is policy.

Beyond being a teacher, I grew up on an island in Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island and I returned to live in my hometown seven years ago. I enjoy being surrounded by my family and friends and all that comes with living by the shore.