I began my teaching career as a student teacher in a third-grade classroom for an award-winning mentor teacher, Mrs. Sunny Willson, who taught me to never lower her expectations for any student, to use a laser level for bulletin board perfection, and to never sit down. Thanks to another amazing mentor, Mrs. Linda Rice, I was hired to teach second grade at Millennium Elementary in Kent, Washington in 2001. In the next four years, I also taught third and fourth grade with wonderful teammates and a tireless technology coach, Mr. Pat Regnart, who supported my new ideas for bringing technology into the classroom. This included student-made video projects, 1:1 handheld computer devices (that I sent home with fourth graders without thinking twice that anything unfortunate would happen), and e-readers.
In 2005, I was selected as one of three teachers to build a pilot program for 1:1 best practices at Kent Technology Academy, a small school located on Mill Creek Middle School’s campus in the heart of Kent’s industrial valley. The pilot teachers and school leader, Ms. Dani Pfeiffer, spent six months visiting other schools, planning a new curriculum, and building a vision for future success. During this time, the Kent Technology Academy made worldwide news. As a part of this program’s success, I was interviewed and recognized by the Wall Street Journal, NBC World News, and Comcast Newsmakers, as well as local news agencies reporting on the innovative teaching methods happening at KTA.
During this time, I completed my Master’s of Science in Education degree with an emphasis on elementary literacy, as well as my Washington state professional certification.
In 2007, I transitioned away from my classroom to support the growth of Kent School District’s 1:1 laptop initiative district-wide, eventually including all 30,000 students under the visionary leadership of Mr. Thuan Nguyen. I spent almost a decade as a One-to-One Program Specialist for Kent School District in Kent, Washington. In this role, I supported, trained, coached, and advocated for teachers across the district in the area of technology integration, specifically for Kent’s 1:1 laptop initiative. I began presenting about the work my team and I had accomplished at conferences and events, including the International Society of Technology Education (ISTE) conference, the Anytime, Anywhere Learning Foundation (AALF), the One-to-One Institute, the National School Board Association (NSBA) site visits, and the Northwest Council for Computer Education (NCCE) conference.
With the support of my supervisor, I adopted a classroom and earned my National Board Teaching Certificate in English Language Arts for early adolescence.
Over the first years of my classroom teaching career, I began to lead professional development experiences for my school staff as well as district-level courses. As a program specialist, I led hundreds of hours of training to prepare educators for utilizing technology in new ways. I became an adjunct professor for Seattle Pacific University and began training other local school systems in blended learning models in 2010. A few years later, I was hired to lead professional development sessions regionally for Puget Sound Educational Service District and nationally as a consultant for the Northwest Council for Computer Education.
In 2014, I first appeared in tutorial videos for Microsoft Education thanks to an invitation from Dr. Kim West, who I had first met when we both worked for Kent School District. Since that time, I have appeared in over 40 Microsoft Education videos that have received thousands of views around the world. It is not unusual for an educator at a technology event to greet her by saying, “Hey! You’re that girl from the videos!”
After 15 years in public education, I accepted a position as Director, Content and Professional Learning with insight2execution. In this role, I supported people and programs and indirectly impact thousands of students around the United States through targeted professional development. I also passed the Microsoft Certified Educator exam and adopted a classroom once again to earn my ISTE Certified Educator credential.
In 2018, i2e began investing resources into game-based learning. I was excited to begin supporting lesson design, professional learning, and curriculum alignment as I learned as much as possible about games in education from industry leaders like Stephen Reid, Steve Isaacs, Paul Darvasi, and Matthew Farber. I joined the board at Phygital Labs and eventually led i2e to develop our own build studio for both Minecraft Education and Fortnite Creative, as well as an entire esports support program called i2esports.
In 2020, I published Sail the 7 Cs with Microsoft Education with my co-author, Kathi Kerzsnowski. In the book we highlight how to build community, collaboration, communication, critical and computational thinking, creativity, and changemaking in any learning environment. We highlight 30 stories from teachers on six continents, and we hope it can inspire anyone to use more impactful teaching practices with their students.
In my current role as director of operations, I oversee i2e’s people and projects. I am responsible for hiring and maintaining a vibrant, diverse community of professional learning specialists and contractors who make our work shine all over the world.
Throughout the past two years, I’ve co-authored the Microsoft Certified Coach industry credential program and have become incredibly interested in the world of generative artificial intelligence, including co-authoring several content packages about Copilot for Microsoft Education and speaking at international events about the impact of AI. I’ve also managed some amazing projects that can all be found in our portfolio on the i2e website.
To date, I have been a top request to lead and speak at both regional and international events for Microsoft in Education. I co-led the Educator Challenge at Microsoft’s E2 (Educator Exchange) events in Budapest, Toronto, and Singapore. I have traveled to speak and lead professional development sessions in New Zealand, Costa Rica, Belgium, and England… and would like to lead sessions on all six inhabited continents before I retire.
I am the co-founder of the professional book club HookEd, which includes cohorts of readers from around the world discussing education-centric books, and a moderator for the Play Matters community on Discord. Most importantly, I am a wife and mom who loves to train for triathlons, water ski and snow ski, read books, and eat popcorn.
