Why start a personal website?  The state of the world calls me, challenges me, to do this!  We are living in perilous times when our lives, and in fact the life of the earth, is severely threatened with extinction.  I am choosing not to sit idly by, be content with my life as is, and do nothing to help make all of our lives and the very life of the earth sustainable. 

Who am I?  Although I have experienced many challenges in my life, I have a deep gratitude for the learning that has been provided to me, both the hard times and the easier times.  I was born during World War II, the second child in an initial family of six.  I spent the first five years of my life on a ranch in Wyoming where we had pet beavers and pet deer.  Roaming the forest and walking along the creek, my siblings and I developed friendships with the animals of the outdoors including deer which we hand-fed, and beavers that we swam with and fed willows to.  These kinds of experiences grounded me in my early development.  

Following the sale of our family ranch, I spent years living on other ranches where my dad was a foreman, living in many towns as my dad left the ranching business and worked in highway construction, airport construction, and bridge building.  This necessitated at least 29 moves which meant attending 16 different schools before I was 16 years old.  I learned that the world was made up of many different people and cultures.  And I could learn, live, and progress no matter where I was.

I have a great gratitude for learning, from experiencing the heartbreak of divorced parents, the happiness of having had step-parents, sisters and brothers, large extended families, and many friends from different walks of life. Of paramount importance, and the very reason I am alive, was a wonderful mother who made sure my siblings and I were always fed, clothed, and went to school.

My learning, both informally and formally, included a great elementary education, dropping out of school when I was fifteen but returning a year later and graduating from high school, earning an AA from Eastern Wyoming College, a BA from the University of Wyoming, and an MA in Psychology, Counseling, and Guidance , and an Ed.D. in Special Education from the University of Northern Colorado.

For the past 40 years, I have worked at all levels of education, from preschool through adult education, from working in residential treatment centers, all levels of public schools, universities, state departments, and at the federal level.  For the past 11 years, I have been an educational consultant and a writer.