I moved to southern IL in 1999 from the NW suburbs of Chicago (Arlington Heights) and have called it home ever since. I started as a graduate student at SIUC, teaching and tutoring English. I left to teach full time at Shawnee Community College, teaching English and Philosophy and was Division Chair of the Humanities and Social Sciences. After 8.5 years, I decided to extend my passion for educatio
nal access by becoming an instructional designer for Pearson where I designed online graduate courses with faculty in a wide variety of subjects at multiple universities across the country. After two years I was promoted to Manager of Instructional Design, managing the course development, training and support of faculty, and a team of instructional designers for more than ten different universities, across diverse curriculums(Cyber, Computer Science, Accounting, Business Administration, Public Health, Social Work, Business Analytics, Engineering, Public Administration, Law, Library Science, Healthcare Administration, Sports Management, Health Informatics). I'm passionate about animal rescue and IL native plants restoration. I volunteer with Plants of Concern, IL Native Plant Society, and WrightWay and St. I was privileged to be on the board of the Neighborhood Coop for a few years and help out at the Cobden Village Shops. I also helped Fork and Vine open their restaurant and enjoyed being a server there for several months. All of these opportunities help me enjoy and support this area I love. Whether as an educator, server, volunteer, or just a friend, I bring my organization skills to everything I do! My work has required lots of organization, which I did for my own work and shared with others to aid efficiency. I started focusing on this aspect of work and help for others after I decided to leave Pearson after 8.5 years and learned a friend with cancer was in need of help. I was able to take the overwhelming and emotional burden off of his spouse and sort through every item in the house, as well as donation and recycling of items. I've since provided this service for a friend whose elderly father moved from his condo in Chicago to her place in Atlanta until he could get into assisted living. He brought EVERYTHING! He suffers from dementia and she works a full-time job. I emptied their storage unit in Chicago so they could save that money, and spent a few weeks in Atlanta sorting every item they owned, helping them decide what to keep, how to organize it, and sell or donate the rest. I look forward to helping more people!
