About

In 2003, I began my teaching career as a middle and high school English teacher. By 2013, I had earned my Ph.D. in special education with an emphasis in gifted education and traded the classroom for the not-so-"ivory tower" of academia. I served as a tenured professor of special and gifted education for eight years, conducting research, publishing peer-reviewed articles and a book, and delivering hundreds of presentations and trainings, locally, nationally, and internationally.

 

But in the middle of a global pandemic, after being away from the K-12 classroom for eight years, I began to question my credibility as a teacher educator. Not long after, in 2021, I felt called back to the public education classroom. To my surprise, that return led to being named both a school and district Teacher of the Year, and eventually a top ten finalist for Georgia Teacher of the Year.

 

As part of that yearlong journey, I was asked to develop a platform, a message for educators. I prayed for guidance, and the answer came quickly and clearly: I needed to support other educators in reigniting their calling. But I knew this work had to go deeper than just asking you to remember your “why,” the names and faces of the students who keep you showing up. We also need a sustainable “how,” a path that helps us stay connected to the profession we love or once loved.

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Remain the Light is more than a platform. It’s a framework built to help us do just that: to reignite our purpose, remain God's light in dark places, and walk alongside others as keepers of the light.