From:  Somerset, Kentucky  (1 hour south of Lexington and 2 hours north of Knoxville)

Family:  All in Kentucky.   Father:  retired funeral director/ embalmer and printer  Mom: worked in funeral home & housewife.  Older sister:  works for a company that distributes food to schools, restaurants, & prisons. 

Pets:  Love them! Don't have any right now.  Had a daschund, half-Persian cat, and mainecoon cat.  (pictures of them on facebook)

Education:  Learned Spanish in high school, studied abroad in Durango, Mexico before going to undergraduate school.  B.S. in Spanish & Industrial Technology with an emphasis in robotics from Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky.   M.A. in Spanish and Latin American Literature at the University of Kentucky.  Ph.D. in August of 2001 from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana in Spanish Applied Linguistics (specifically Second Language Acquisition).  

Teaching:  Spanish- UK 3 years, Purdue 6 years, NGCSU since fall 2001;  ESL (English as a second language)- Purdue 3 years;  ESOL endorsement for public school teachers- NGCSU since summer 2003.

Interests:  travel, basketball, keeping in touch with old friends, movies and t.v., shopping, playing on the internet, reading, just hanging out and talking with friends, dog and cat-sitting for friends, trying new restaurants - especially Thai, Chinese, & Indian food.  I love food.  Joined Weight Watchers in Jan 2005.  It took me a little over 2 years to lose 130 pounds.  I hit my goal on 2-15-07.  For a before picture, click here. 

Travel  As for travel to Spanish-speaking places, I've been to Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, and Uruguay.  My favorites are Mexico, Peru, and Argentina.  I loved the people, food, sites and cultural activities in the countries.  I've studied in Mexico and traveled there many times.  I was in Argentina for 3.5 weeks in summer 2006 teaching a Spanish course and traveling.  I was in Spain for five weeks in summer 2003 with NGCSU's study abroad program.  It is a beautiful country.  I visited Puerto Rico alone for one week in 2002.  I really liked it a lot and plan to return with friends or family to get to know it much better.  The food was wonderful and the beaches great!!!  I was only in Uruguay for a brief time in 2006 and visited one beautiful little town similar to Dahlonega.  I was in Peru in Dec of 2008 for 2.5 weeks for enjoyment.  I visited several tourist sites including Lake Titicaca, the Nazca Lines, and Machu Picchu.  It's a varied and beautiful country!  I hope to go back sometime as well as travel around other areas of Latin America.

In the summer of 2010 I spent 15 days traveling through Greece.  What a wonderful country!!!  I went to several places including Athens, Meteora, Olympia, Delphi, Naplion, Mykonos, Santorini, and more.  I really want to go back some day.  In the summer of 2012 I spent 6 weeks in China.  Four of those weeks I was teaching sociolinguistics at Liaocheng University (Shandong Province) and the other two weeks I was exploring Shanghai and Beijing.  I loved it!!! 

Why Georgia?  Why not? I love it here!  Check out this picture if you aren't from Dahlonega to see one of the reasons I love it (click here).