Q: How long have you been teaching?

A: This is my 33rd year of teaching.

Q: What brought you to Southwest?

A: I’m a retired teacher and school counselor from Lawrence and this is kind of my second go around.

Q: What do you like about teaching at Southwest?

A: I like the students [and] the format of the block schedule, you guys have good school spirit [too]. I [also] like my colleagues; my team is really good.

Q: What are you looking forward to this year?

A: I think just getting to know more about Southwest and [getting] to know the system a little more, like when you’re new it’s like this is my first year here, so I had a lot to learn, but [I am] learning more about Southwest.

Q: What college did you attend?

A: I went to K-State.

Q: Why did you choose to be a special education teacher?

A: Actually I can teach several things, but right now I’m back to teaching students in study skills classes. I started my career doing that 33 years ago and I [then] was a counselor and taught business classes. Now I’ve just kind of made a circle and I’m right back to the beginning.

Q: What’s a fun fact about you?

A: I always tell the same fun fact, in 2020 I was on, I was visiting Kenya on a safari, and the land cruiser got stuck in the mud in the Maasai Mara game preserve and we had to be rescued by the game wardens in their Jeep with Cape buffalo right outside the jeep [by the] lake. So I [could] almost touch them. So that’s one of my fun stories and I lived to tell about it.