I grew up in a rural farming community. My dad was a carpenter — a maker. My mom was a teacher and her mom was a teacher, in a one room schoolhouse. I spent many happy days outside with my dogs, wandering the fields and woods, following my curiosity and spinning stories in my head. It was a long way from where life would take me.   

I have been following my curiosity ever since.

After a degree in Art History from the University of Wisconsin, Madison I spent several years living and working in Chicago. Then I followed my interests into the field of early education and childhood studies.

I became a third-generation teacher of young children.

Life brought me back to my small rural town in Wisconsin where I opened Big Willow Learning Company, a family-based childcare program. I vividly remember sitting in the backyard with the children playing around me, reading The Hundred Languages of Children and having a stunning moment of awe – this was something different, this was something that exploded traditional thinking about children, and teaching, and learning, and opened a whole new world of possibilities.

I had to follow my curiosity.

This eventually led me back to Madison, Wisconsin to teach and learn at Preschool of the Arts, to get my master’s degree in early childhood education, and really dive into deepening my study and understanding of the Reggio Emilia Approach.

Now I live in Northampton, Massachusetts. I participated in my first of several study tours to the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy while teaching at the Reggio influenced Fort Hill Center for Early Childhood Education at Smith College in Northampton. I have gone on to complete my doctorate at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. My research, Young Children Positioned as Storytellers in the Classroom: An examination of teacher-child interactions and the storytelling event.

I am proud to serve, since 2014, as Professor of Education at Greenfield Community College, Greenfield, Massachusetts. Throughout my many experiences in early education, higher education studies and research, and ongoing professional collaborations, the philosophy and principles of the Reggio Emilia approach have continued to resonate with me on many levels. The philosophy never fails to push my perspectives in new ways both deeply meaningful as well as joyful.

I have always been interested in the youngest among us; the 1's, 2's, 3's, 4's & 5's. They are new to the world, encountering new relationships with people and things, and their perspectives are incredibly rich and powerful. In my role as a collaborative consultant with Reggio interested programs I get to continue following my curiosity alongside others in the pursuit of exciting, joyful, and deeply meaningful work with young children.

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