Credentials:

• Master of Arts - Linguistics - The City University of New York
• Bachelor of Arts - English - Kent State University

Professional organizations:

• The American Comparative Literature Association 
• Association of Writers & Writing Programs

Publications or Presentations:

• One Hundred Below (forthcoming February 14, 2019 through Black Rose Writing) 
• Infinity Point (published 2016 through Black Rose Writing)

Why did you enter the teaching profession?

I come from a family of teachers, and that certainly helped guide me in the direction of the field, but the turning point for me was a professor I had at Kent State who introduced me to linguistics. I didn’t even know what linguistics was before Professor Karman’s class, and now I have a master’s degree in it. I decided to “pay it forward” and try to do for my students what Professor Karman did for me.

What do you like most about your field?

I like that writing allows students room for creativity and self-expression. Also I like how I can read all my favorite books and still be “working.”

Fun facts:

Writing is not just something that I teach. I am also a published novelist and short story writer. Obviously I love reading as well. Some of my favorite books include Libra by Don DeLillo, Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.