I grew up on a dairy farm about 40 miles south of the City of St. Louis, MO.  A dairy farm means milking the cows twice a day every day! I lived a thoroughly Midwestern US farm life; by the time I graduated from high school, I had been in two states: Missouri, and across the Mississippi River into Illinois.

        Then I went away to college and met Charlie; we married a month after graduation. I have enjoyed a long and satisfying career in education. I started as a teacher, mostly in Missouri, but also in North Carolina, when Charlie was stationed at Camp Lejuene in the US Marines. I retired as Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Professional Development from a large school district in St. Louis County. Since then I have consulted with a number of different districts.  Charlie retired in January 2013 from Toyota as a Manufacturing Vice-President.  
 

      Charlie is also a Kiwanian, served as a Missouri-Arkansas Lt. Governor, and is a Club Counselor in the Global Growth Campaign.  Improving the world through Kiwanis is a focus of our lives. Charlie and I live in Creve Coeur, a suburb of St. Louis, MO.  We are the proud parents of two adult children, Chuck and Leslie.  They are both lawyers, Chuck in New York City, and Leslie in southern California, one on each coast of the US!  We enjoy visiting our children, family, and friends, and activities such as jogging, hiking, stand-up paddle-boarding, and yoga.
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     Other details about my background are listed below.

EDUCATION​

• B.S.~Southeast Missouri State College
• M.S.~University of Missouri–St. Louis
• Ed.D. in Educational Leadership~St. Louis University ​