Built through
doing.

My experience in classroom & curriculum

The classroom has been the center of my professional life for more than fifteen years. During that time, I have taught students across honors, general education, inclusion, and resource settings, which has given me experience working with learners who need very different levels of challenge, structure, independence, and support. Much of my curriculum work has grown directly from that reality: taking worthwhile ideas and figuring out how to make them work with the actual students sitting in front of me.

I have designed original lessons and resources, adapted existing curricula such as OpenSciEd, developed interactive notebook systems, created laboratory investigations and simulations, differentiated readings and assessments, and built supports for students with a wide range of learning needs. My approach has become deliberately flexible. Sometimes inquiry is the right tool; sometimes students need direct instruction, modeling, additional practice, or a different way into an idea. I am less interested in following a particular instructional philosophy perfectly than in preserving meaningful thinking while making learning accessible, manageable, and worthwhile.

My experience in tutoring & coaching

Working individually or in small groups with students has given me a different perspective on learning. In a classroom, it is easy to see that a student is struggling; one-on-one work creates the opportunity to figure out exactly where that struggle begins. Sometimes the missing piece is content knowledge. Other times it is organization, study habits, confidence, interpreting directions, checking work, or simply never having been explicitly taught how to learn independently.

My experience as a teacher, tutor, parent, and coach has made me particularly interested in helping young people develop skills that extend beyond a single assignment or test. That can mean breaking a difficult concept into manageable pieces, developing a study plan, learning to use feedback, practicing self-assessment, or using emerging tools such as AI thoughtfully as a tutor and practice partner. I am equally interested in helping the adults supporting students understand what productive support looks like—providing enough structure to help a learner succeed while gradually building the confidence and independence to need less of it.

My experience in programs & experiences

Some of my favorite educational work begins with the question, “What could students actually do with this?” Over the years, that question has led beyond traditional lessons into science clubs, environmental programs, field experiences, aquaculture and aquaponics, hands-on STEM activities, laboratory investigations, community science, and other experiences that allow students to learn by interacting with real materials, organisms, systems, places, and problems.

Designing those experiences has also taught me that the activity students see is only one part of a successful program. Behind it are schedules, materials, equipment, safety considerations, transportation, permissions, partners, student directions, differentiation, backup plans, and countless small logistical decisions. I enjoy both sides of that work: imagining an experience worth having and then figuring out how to make it practical. Whether an experience lasts an hour, a day, or develops into a long-term program, I want students to leave having done more than simply been entertained. I want them to have explored something, made something, discovered something, or become curious about something they had not considered before.

My experience in grants & partnerships

Some educational ideas require resources and expertise that a classroom or school cannot provide on its own. That realization led me into grant writing and, eventually, into building partnerships with environmental organizations, scientists, community groups, local government, and other professionals. What began with an application for a state climate-education grant grew into approximately $75,000 in funding and a much larger program involving equipment, field experiences, professional learning, environmental education, and outside partnerships.

Since then, I have continued working with organizations including the American Littoral Society, Barnegat Bay Partnership, ReClam the Bay, and other environmental and community partners on projects connecting students and schools with authentic environmental work. I have become increasingly interested not only in winning funding, but in everything that comes afterward: turning a proposal into a functioning program, managing resources responsibly, coordinating people with different expertise, and developing relationships that can outlast an individual grant. Those experiences have also opened the door to increasingly ambitious conversations about coastal resilience, wetlands, restoration, and ways schools and students can meaningfully participate in work happening within their own communities.

My experience in professional learning

My work with other educators has grown naturally out of my classroom practice. I have contributed to district professional learning, curriculum development, instructional planning, technology and AI conversations, and collaborative work with colleagues. I have also had opportunities to share educational and environmental work beyond my own district, including serving as a panelist at the 2026 New Jersey Coastal and Climate Resilience Conference.

The professional learning I find most valuable is grounded in the realities of doing the work. Teachers rarely need another presentation telling them that differentiation, engagement, inquiry, technology, or meaningful assessment are important. The more useful questions are usually practical: What does this look like with my students? What can I realistically do tomorrow? What happens when it doesn’t work? How can I adapt it without losing what made the idea valuable in the first place? I approach work with educators the same way I approach my own teaching—with examples, usable resources, room for professional judgment, honest discussion of what has and has not worked, and the expectation that good ideas should continue evolving once they reach someone else’s classroom.

My experience in leadership & innovation

Throughout my career, I have taken on leadership roles that have allowed me to see education from perspectives beyond my own classroom. I have served as an elected union representative, team leader, and content specialist, working with colleagues, administrators, and other stakeholders on issues ranging from instruction and curriculum to the everyday challenges of working within a school system. As a content specialist, my responsibilities extended well beyond curriculum development. I participated in hiring teachers, supervised and evaluated staff, developed growth and support plans, provided professional development, led weekly department meetings, managed purchasing and instructional resources, and worked to create greater consistency in science curriculum and instruction across grades 6–8. That experience required me to think not only about what worked in my own classroom, but about how curriculum, expectations, resources, teacher development, and instructional decisions fit together across an entire department.

My experience as an elected union representative added a different perspective. Being chosen by colleagues to represent their interests meant listening carefully, communicating concerns, advocating on their behalf, and navigating situations where teachers, administrators, and the larger system did not always see an issue the same way. Together, these experiences have allowed me to see educational leadership from several sides—as a classroom teacher, instructional leader, supervisor, colleague, and representative of other educators. They have reinforced something I have come to believe strongly: good leadership, like good teaching, requires knowing when to lead, when to listen, when to challenge, and when to change course.

Those experiences have shaped how I think about leadership itself. I do not see leadership simply as a title or as being the person at the front of the room. Sometimes it means advocating for people. Sometimes it means bringing different perspectives together, offering expertise, asking an uncomfortable but necessary question, or taking responsibility for moving an idea forward. And sometimes good leadership means recognizing when someone else has the better idea and helping them make it happen.

Across those roles, I have tried to bring the same combination of curiosity, practicality, collaboration, and willingness to experiment that guides my classroom work. Good leadership, like good teaching, requires knowing when to lead, when to listen, when to challenge, and when to change course.

Much of my professional growth has also come from being willing to step into problems that do not have ready-made solutions. I have contributed to district initiatives, explored emerging technologies, participated in conversations around AI and education, developed new instructional systems, piloted new programs and approaches, and helped colleagues think through changes in curriculum and practice. I am particularly drawn to the space between an interesting idea and its practical implementation: How could this work? What would it require? What problems are we likely to encounter? And how do we make the next version better?