My Background

My personal and professional background reflect a lifetime commitment to education.

I was born in Silver Spring, raised in North Potomac and live in Chevy Chase. I grew up in an MCPS family as the daughter of two MCPS teachers. My husband and I are both MCPS graduates. We have two young adult daughters who are also MCPS graduates.

My volunteer work began as a local PTA President and grew into countywide advocacy for families, students and staff.

I served four years as the area Cluster Coordinator for the Walt Whitman community. Later, I helped lead and direct the advocacy work of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs (MCCPTA) as a member of the Executive Committee and as the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) budget chair. I followed MCPS, County and state budgets year-round. I have advocated for school construction and facilities funding, lower class sizes, proportional staffing and student-counselor ratios before the Board and the Council.

For the past three years, I have facilitated community outreach, training and capacity building for local school communities. I also served on the MCCPTA-MCPS  School Construction Work Group.  Together with PTA colleagues, we successfully collaborated with MCPS staff to launch local School Construction Impact Teams. These teams bring together MCPS staff, school administrators, parent, students and staff as a convening place. We work side-by-side to identify and improve safety and health protocols, as well as school communications, for the issues school communities face during on-site construction and transitions to holding schools.

My professional pathways have led me back to PreK-12 public education.

In my professional life, I co-founded a local non-profit, worked as policy and planning researcher for the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities (APLU) and as a legislative manager for a state government relations firm. 

At the University of Maryland, College Park, I’ve held various teaching and research positions, including serving as the assistant director of the College Park Scholars Public Leadership Program. I currently serve as a member of the UMD College of Education’s Board of Visitors.

In the classroom I’ve taught undergraduate and graduate courses in public policy, leadership ethics, social justice and education policy analysis. 

I hold a BA in Government & Politics, an MA and PhD in Education Policy from UMD.