Continued in her own words:

"I have taught at Catawba College for over 23 years. During this time I have worked with prospective teachers in how to teach the language arts (i.e., reading, writing, viewing, listening), and for twelve years I designed and taught study skills activities for a nationally-acclaimed, year-long freshman orientation program. Presently, I teach exclusively in the Teacher Education Department. In the classes that I teach for our elementary education program, I direct our junior interns as they diagnose and tutor children with reading difficulties. I supervise this experience and often teach these same children as the Catawba College interns observe me. I also have our college interns observe as I teach three integrated reading lessons in an elementary classroom. In addition, I teach language arts methods course for prospective middle and secondary teachers. I closely supervise prospective language arts and social studies teachers in their junior internships and in their student teaching experiences. The Teacher Education Programs at Catawba College excel in helping teacher candidates implement theory into practice.

I am the director of our master’s program in elementary education. I work with several of our graduate students as they design projects based on best-practices research. I then supervise their implementation of their action research in their own classrooms. These experiences keep me up-to-date regarding improved teaching strategies and in our ever-changing school settings.

I have been successful in my tenure here at Catawba College. While I have been active in making presentations at state and national conferences, much of my professional time has been spent working directly with students. I was the 2003-2004 recipient of the Swink Award for Outstanding Teaching and have the Clifford A. & Lillian C. Peeler Professorship here at Catawba College. I am most proud of the accomplishments of several of my former students who have received local, state, and national recognition (e.g., teacher-of-the-year honors for their schools and overall school systems, the Terry Sanford State Award for Creative Teaching, a Fulbright grant recipient to study in Japan, and several National Board certified teachers)."