Q: Please tell us a bit about yourself and your family.
I was born and raised in the area. I grew up in Newportville with my mom and grandparents. My grandfather was the Fire Chief of the Newportville Fire Company and my family attended Newportville Community Church. My mom continues to be the organist there to this day. I graduated from Truman High School and went to Holy Family University. After college, I began my teaching career in secondary math. My husband KJ, and I got married on July 7, 2007, a math teacher’s dream, 07/07/07. We have 2 boys, Austin who is 13 and Everett who is almost 11. When I was pregnant with Everett, we moved to Holland from our first home in Yardley. We have lived in Holland ever since.
Q: Tell us about your time with the Holland Little League.
At a young age my son, Austin, discovered his love for baseball. This brought us to Holland Little League. Joining this organization gave us the chance to integrate into the community and build relationships with people. Shortly after Austin’s second season of baseball, I was approached by Jim Clark and asked to join the board at Holland. I was hesitant at first, but he explained to me that they were looking to diversify the board and I couldn’t say no. That was 5 years ago now. The following year, I was approached by Asher Dubas to join his coaching staff for that year’s 8 year old travel team. Again I was unsure, but I took the leap. These opportunities were special to me because I felt like people were seeing things in me that I had not seen in myself yet. I think it is special for the kids to see moms participating in their sports teams, too. I am grateful for the opportunity they have given me to show that to my kids.
As a board member, I often think of myself as the utility player for the team. I take care of many behind the scenes aspects of the league. I manage one of our email addresses, the uniforms, the apparel shops, picture day and some little stuff in between. I loved the opportunity this league has given me to spend more time with my boys as we share the love of baseball together.
Q: Please tell us about your current, past, or future career.
I teach math at Council Rock High School North. My niche is in Geometry and Precalculus. I love my job! I am not brilliant by any stretch, but I believe this helps me connect to the kids. I truly enjoy my students: the athletes, the musicians, the artists, the academic phenoms, and everyone in between. It is very special to be a teacher in my hometown. I love to be able to support the students by attending a game, a show, or even being a patron at their place of work.
This year I took on a bit of a different role in my job, I am now teaching some classes designed for gifted students. We have been working on revamping our gifted program which has meant longer hours, and has meant less time in my role on the board for Holland Baseball. I am stepping back a bit, but am still on the Player Agent and the Co-Director of Apparel. I am also an assistant coach on my younger son, Everett’s, 11 year old travel team.
Q: What do you love most about what you do?
When it comes to teaching and coaching the thing I love the most has been the mentorship from many amazing people. I feel extremely grateful to the mentors both my sons and I have had from this community. I feel blessed that Asher Dubas has mentored my son in baseball, but I also feel so blessed that he mentored me as a coach. Additionally, I am so thankful to Derek Wright. Derek is a colleague and mentor to me at work, but then also coaches and mentors my son in basketball. Both of these men have impacted myself, Austin, and countless others.
You learn new coaching strategies and then that bleeds into teaching, and parenting, and all of the relationships in your life, coming full circle. The lessons we have all learned are so valuable. I feel extraordinarily privileged to be a mom, a teacher and a coach. I think my favorite thing about what I do is the tie in of all three things. As a mom of a 10 and 13 year old my kids are never home. They are running around for different sports, and when they are home we are digging out time to do homework. I think it makes me a better teacher because I understand first hand what these kids are going through and how their lives work.
Q: What are some of your favorite places in our community?
Our family loves to eat out. My students have mentioned how I always talk about what we got for dinner last night, and rarely what we made for dinner. There are very few restaurants in the community that we don’t like or visit frequently. Some of our family favorites are El Barrio, Madison Cafe, and Aldo’s. Outside of restaurants, I frequent OrangeTheory in Newtown or Garage Barre in Richboro. We also love our church, Woodside Presbyterian in Yardley.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?
When I graduated college my mom treated me to a trip to Hawaii and nothing has ever topped Hawaii for me. If I could go anywhere in the world I would take my family there. We also love Disney and go there once a year or so. Honestly, wherever my family is, that’s a great vacation.
Q: What is one of your favorite movies? TV shows?
Right now I am watching Suits. I am enjoying it so much! I tend to go in spurts, I went 8 years without watching TV because of how busy our life got. The first show that brought me back after that one was Blacklist. As a family our favorite movie is The National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
Q: What advice would you give to people?
It is important to remember, most of the time anger and frustration is rooted in misunderstanding and jealousy. Take a deep breath, sleep on it. Try not to be reactionary. My advice to my students is always: you don’t have to peak in high school. Sometimes we don’t give ourselves the freedom to peak when we are ready. You are not defined by one test grade. You are not defined by your high school career. You are not defined by one bad day. Everyday is a new day. The advice I give to my baseball players is, “Goldfish Memory” (Credit to Evan Good). It may have happened, but it is over now and we need to move on to the next opportunity.
Q: What is something on your bucket list?
This goes back to the travel question, but I would love to do a trip out West. Maybe to Utah, Arizona, or California to do some hiking and enjoy some wineries.
Q: What is your favorite band or music genre?
I love country music; especially Chris Stapelton and, recently, Morgan Wallen. I also love Motown.
Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?
I will still be here. I see myself still teaching math and living in Holland. At that point my kids will be driving or in college, so I will potentially have more time for myself. I would love to be back in a tennis group, maybe I will pick up pickleball. It would be great if my husband and I could do that together. I would be happy to make more time for yoga as well.
Q: What is your favorite holiday and why?
Christmas. There is nothing more beautiful than a candlelight service on Christmas Eve! In our family Christmas also represents a slow down. We get time off of school, we get to sleep in, and we just get to slow down. That time together is so special for us.
Q: Who inspires you to be better?
My mom! If you think of the kindest, most giving person that you know and you multiply that by 10, you still won’t be close to my mom. My mother is the most supportive person in my life. To this day, she is the person who is always looking out for me and helping me through life. When it comes down to it, my mom inspires me to be better because she is always nice. She is a true Christian who leads by example. She is no pushover, but she teaches me everyday to handle life with kindness and grace.
My very, very good friend and colleague Lisa Belz also inspires me. Lisa has taught me so much about being a teacher, a coach, a friend, a mom and an advocate for kids who need it. She is consistently teaching me how to balance kindness with structure and expectation.
Q: What are one or two of your favorite smells?
Babies and fresh laundry.
Q: What words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?
Family and my bed.