About Me

I lived in Brookfield for the first few years of my life, but I consider myself a Newtown native. I grew up in Sandy Hook, attending Sandy Hook Elementary, Newtown Middle School (there was no Reed then), and Newtown High School, where I graduated in 2006. As a high school student I was active in the drama club (a popular activity among my students is looking for me in the cast/crew photos that line the music hallway). My parents still lived in Sandy Hook until fall of 2019, when they downsized to a new home in Naugatuck.

I attended Gettysburg College from 2006-2010, majoring in English and minoring in Secondary Education (my degree is B.A. English). I worked in schools in Biglerville, Littlestown, and Gettysburg, and student taught at Hanover High School (where the Snyder's pretzels come from). I also studied urban education and conducted fieldwork in Baltimore, MD. I was active in the Gettysburg College theater department despite taking no formal theater classes, and was a crew leader, master electrician, and lighting designer. I also worked for the college as a sound and lighting technician for campus wide events, including conventions and concerts. For a few months I also worked as a stagehand at the Majestic Theatre in Gettysburg, primarily as an electrician and follow spot operator, though I also worked as a carpenter and fly operator.

I moved back to Connecticut in 2010 and worked as a daily substitute and long-term substitute in Newtown schools as well as Oxford, Ansonia, and Milford. During that time, I spent many afternoons walking my parents' dogs at Fairfield Hills. In November of 2012, I returned to NHS as a long-term substitute in the English Department. I have since lived in Newtown and Monroe, and currently live in Shelton.

My hobbies include reading, writing, video games, board games, posting photos of my father's English mastiff on Instagram, learning obscure technical facts about engineering on YouTube, and listening to the nerdiest podcasts I can find. I am also a fan of the New York Mets, which (once you get to know me) explains a lot.

This is my seventh year teaching full-time at NHS and my ninth overall in teaching. I generally teach sophomore and junior English classes, though occasionally I get to pick up a few senior electives. With some help from my colleagues, I oversee the NHS Poetry Slam and often help coordinate the Poetry Out Loud competition.

When not teaching my own classes, I argue about books with other graduate students (and the occasional unwitting passerby) in and around the English Department at Southern Connecticut State University, where I am working on my Master's of Science in English.