Math has always been a part of my life.  Growing up, my father was always doing math in his head, even though he was a historian, and not a mathematician.  In addition, I grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana, home of Purdue University, which is a big engineering school, and has a campus teeming with technical types.  A mathematical approach to things was sort of just “in the air”.

I spent my primary and secondary school years surrounded by the sons and daughters of mathematicians, scientists, and engineers, in a school system where academic excellence mattered and where math was an important focus.   Several of my classmates  ended up as math and physics professors at MIT and other major universities.

My math challenges while growing up came from being in an environment where I was competing with some rather gifted fellow students.   This left me with an appreciation of both the frustration and the elation than can come with studying math.

After graduating from Purdue with a Bachelor’s in liberal arts, I moved to Michigan where I pursued a Master’s in Computer Science.  It was in Michigan that I started tutoring math and discovered the joys of sitting down at a kitchen table with a student to make a seemingly difficult subject much much easier.

From there I moved to Colorado, and taught classes in a variety of computer related subjects.  Much of my work was for the University of Colorado Continuing Education department, where I taught a series of beginning programming courses that formed the foundation of their Programming Certificate.

I love teaching, both one-on-one and in a classroom environment.  I believe one-on-one tutoring is perfect for math, and I love those “aha” moments when things start to click for my students.  I have 15+ years of experience tutoring math for middle school and high school students, and 12+ years of classroom experience teaching programming and computer-related subjects.

Having relocated to Tucson,  I am now excited about having the opportunity to  work with middle school, high school, and college students in order to bring light and understanding to a subject that often yields more than its share of aggravation  and tears.

I appreciate Tucson because I love the outdoors and enjoy hiking.  I am an avid international folk dancer, and am also an enthusiastic reader.   I loved working my way through George R.R. Martin’s “A Game of Thrones” series, and I just wish he would finish the last two books!!

B.A. Purdue University, Phi Beta Kappa Honorary Society             M.A. University of Windsor (Canada)
M.A. Computer Science, University of Michigan

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