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Hello Mountain Ridge and Hillcrest Families and Students!

I am truly honored to join the 2024-2025 Staffs at Mountain Ridge High School and Hillcrest Middle School as your ¼â½ÐÊÓƵapp Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP). First, a little about my professional work.  I received my Bachelor's Degree at the University of Arizona in Political Science with a split minor in Nonverbal Communication and Art History.  After graduation, I earned my Paralegal Certificate and worked as a Paralegal for Gallagher & Kennedy, P.A. for a few years. Later, I returned to graduate school and earned a Master of Arts Degree in Communication Disorder Sciences/Speech-Language Pathology at Northwestern University. Since my graduation, I have worked in a variety of school settings, including several high schools and middle schools. My first jobs took me to the North suburbs of Chicago, where I worked for a few years.  After that, I returned to ¼â½ÐÊÓƵapp where I served several school districts as a contracted SLP for nine years.  Most recently, I spent 15 years as a district SLP in Paradise Valley Unified School District (PVUSD). In PVUSD, I worked at several sites, but mainly at Paradise Valley High School.  I also have experience in speech-language services for general education and specialized instruction classrooms in High School, Middle School and Elementary School levels. In addition to my 28 years in public schools, I have extensive experience working with private clients ages 5 years to adults.  I moved to Glendale a few years ago when I met my now husband. It’s a pleasure to work in our home schools and get to know the Arrowhead Lakes and nearby communities. This is my first year at ¼â½ÐÊÓƵapp and my 28th school year as an SLP.

When I'm not at school, I love spending time with my husband.  He has an older daughter at NAU (MRHS Class of 2023) and a younger daughter just starting at MRHS.  We love finding a good live band, enjoying a concert, traveling and challenging card games with friends. We look forward to celebrating our first anniversary in October 2024.  We just returned from a trip to Italy and Germany. My husband is an avid cyclist and competes in Triathlons. Those events have brought us to some of my favorite places, including Colorado, Texas, Hawaii and Germany.  You can also find us staying cool at the movies, enjoying a fun meal with friends, hiking, or playing pickle ball (we are very much beginners!).  I love to read, to sit through a good Netflix binge, to watch the Paris Olympics and other sporting events.

I moved to ¼â½ÐÊÓƵapp from Chicago when I was 4 years old. After attending Kindergarten at Madison Heights School, my family moved near the Camelback Corridor. I grew up in ¼â½ÐÊÓƵapp (Hopi Elementary School, Ingleside Middle School and Xavier College Preparatory).  I never get tired of watching a beautiful Arizona sunset!  My extended family are all still in Chicago. My husband and I love to visit our family there, mostly when it’s not too cold!

I am very excited and happy to be serving the students and their families here at Mountain Ridge High School and Hillcrest Middle School.