About Me

I'm from Georgia originally, with pit stops in Alabama, New York City, Buffalo, Long Island, and Connecticut, finally getting to Texas in 2006. Along the way, I worked as an actor, an advertising exec, a retail manager, a high school teacher, and a librarian, before finally figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up: an English professor.

I have a BFA in Theatrical Performance from Auburn University and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English, both from the University of Georgia. I’ve been teaching since 1995, and I’ve been at WT since 2006.

I am a writer as well as a teacher.  My recent poetry has been published at Penumbra Online and Anti-Heroin Chic. My academic publications have focused on British Romantic and Victorian poets and 18th- and 19th-century laboring-class women writers. These days I'm chipping away at a long project that covers the development of Gothic fiction and poetry. If you'd like to see more about my academic or writing life, please visit here.

My husband Dr. David Hart (who teaches Logic and Philosophy here at WT) and I have been married for twenty-three years. We met in graduate school on the first day of our Shakespeare class. It’s a wonderfully romantic story that I’ll undoubtedly share at some point during the semester since it is one of my favorite stories of all time. Those of you who dislike sentiment will find this moment challenging, I’m sure, and I thank you in advance for indulging me.

Our son J is fifteen years old and super into video games and strength training. To say that he is the light of our lives is a gigantic understatement.

We are also the proud pet-parents of Dougall, a 3 year old pit bull and Cheese Poirot, a 2 year old orange tabby cat. Both are horribly entitled. I take full responsibility. See the adjacent photos for proof of their spoiled-rotten selves.

I am an active member of my church, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Amarillo. I serve as a licensed preacher in the Episcopal Diocese of Northwest Texas, and I am currently enrolled in seminary study through the IONA Collaborative at the Seminary of the Southwest in preparation for ordination to the priesthood (The Episcopal Church ordains men and women as deacons or priests). I'm a community volunteer serving on various boards in the Amarillo area; a planner fanatic; a really good cook; and a powerlifter-in-training. 

Yes, you read that correctly: powerlifting. I am as astonished to write it as you are to read it. I came to strength training later in life, and I now have all the proselytizing zeal of the converted. Do not ask me about powerlifting unless you really want to hear about it.

In WTClass, we have an Introductions board where I'll ask you to share about yourselves, and I very much look forward to getting to know you all!