Résumé/CV
You can download my
résumé/cv here [PDF].
The Mini-Bio
I grew up just south of Richmond, Virginia and have been living in and around Northern Virginia since my teen years. After I graduated from Mary Washington College, I lived in Chinlé, AZ for two summers working with the Diné (Navajo) school system, where I helped to edit bi-cultural curriculum documents. That work convinced me I wanted to become an educator, so I returned to Virginia to complete my certification.
I taught English and creative writing at Woodbridge Senior High School’s Center for the Fine and Performing Arts (CFPA) in Woodbridge, Virginia for nine years (1998-2007). While there, I helped to design and implement the CFPA program and the Center’s four-year creative writing program. In 1999, I created a community-based website for teachers of English and creative writing at the school, which originally connected students through forum discussions but grew to include profiles, blogs, and file sharing. During that time, I also helped to develop and teach an online creative writing course as part of the county’s Virtual High School initiative. In 2001, I became the Technology Liaison for the Northern Virginia Writing Project (NVWP), housed at George Mason University. Through that service, I have helped to integrate online technologies into the Project’s work and have led numerous workshops to help teachers understand how emerging online technologies can further improve the teaching of writing.
Currently, I work with a contracting agency for the Children’s Bureau to help bring online solutions to the Child Welfare Reform Project, and I continue to work with teachers and students through “virtual volunteer” efforts and my role with NVWP.
Education & Licenses
I have a Bachelor’s in Religion and English from the University of Mary Washington, a Masters in English from George Mason University, a Virginia Secondary English teaching certificate, and a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certificate in Adolescent/Young Adult Language Arts.
Other Pursuits & Interests
Besides my obvious interests in education and technology, there’s also …
- Writing, Literature & Film: I try to write fiction (mostly stories so far), script (screen and comics), and a little poetry. I’m fascinated by the process of making films and TV shows, and hope to participate in that process someday. Beyond general literature and film study and criticism, I’m particularly interested in genre studies and admit to a sweet-tooth for the darker stuff: horror and dark fantasy.
- The Arts: I’m a dabbler: I did some acting and theater-tech work in high school and college and still miss it; I sing and play around on the piano, and used to play the flute and a variety of percussion instruments; I keep promising myself I’ll learn the guitar and saxophone; one day, I want to learn to paint (not just my house); I love photography, but don’t claim to be very good or to know much about it (though I do keep working on it).
- Cultural Studies: I’ve always been fascinated by the range of subjects loosely filed under “cultural studies,” particularly: literary/media theory and film studies, cultural anthropology and folklore, philosophy and comparative religion, and gender studies. My own history with religion and spirituality is long and convoluted, but still significant to me. I consider myself both a student (in the academic sense) and a seeker (in the practical sense). My emphasis tends toward comparative religion studies, particularly Native American studies, and folklore.
- Travel: I love to visit new places, and have seen much of the U.S. and the areas surrounding southern Germany (where my father’s side of the family still lives).
- Outdoor Recreation: I like to hike and scramble around outdoors, have trained for wilderness survival (and wilderness first-aid), and just completed my scuba certification. Next on the list: rock-climbing and kayaking.
- Gaming: My family likes to play games: board games and card games mostly. I admit to many late nights of roleplaying in college, and even now can blow an evening on a computer game.
This Site
I plan to use this site to try to accomplish a few things:
- Support my professional activities . . . my consulting work usually relates to instructional technology, online content development and management, or technical writing and editing. I also continue to pursue publication of my poetry and fiction writings and production of my scripts.
- Collect my research . . . I use my blog as a “notebook” to record observations on subjects I want to give special attention to (like education, technology, literacy, writing, genre fiction, cultural studies, etc.), and to record events (so I don’t forget them). I maintain a wiki to try to make sense of my notes and to prepare presentations to others. Even if no one reads these, they help keep me clarify and organize my thinking.
- Share with friends and family . . . if they’re interested . . .
- Collect my online life . . . to keep me from feeling too “scattered” around the web.
So, if you’re here, welcome. I hope you find at least a few things of interest. Leave a comment or contact me if you do.
