I love living in Provo, Utah and across the street from BYU. I have one son who recently graduated, another just getting started, and a dozen honorary “nieces” and “nephews” at various points in their college careers. They regularly speak of their love for the mountains, the local restaurants they have discovered, and the job and housing opportunities that exist here. Several have expressed interest in staying in Utah, but they are concerned with raising kids here “because of the schools”. There is an educational option missing in Utah that is causing these young families to look elsewhere. I believe that Elevated Academy will fill that gap. 

Although I am not a traditional educator, for the last decade, all of my professional work has been in creating training and curriculum to inspire both children and adults to learn or to teach something new. I am excited to bring that experience to a school in Utah devoted to developing a love of learning in each student by exposing them to the power of being a lifelong learner, a critical thinker, a methodical skill builder, and to using these talents to serve their community.

I led a small team in the development of training materials to teach computer programmers and teachers how to teach computational thinking and computer programming to middle school aged students. We have now trained teachers in six continents. This work has led to very unique collaborations. After insisting that fifty percent of the teachers be women, we were hired by the Educational Minister of Palestine to provide a three week training for twenty-four teachers in the West Bank, this has resulted in thousands of Palestinian children receiving a full year of computer programming education. We have trained teachers in private schools in the UK, teachers in all girls schools in Jordan, teachers in Australia, Hawaii, Riverside, CA, Lithuania (in Russia) and many places in between. I have been hired by corporations to train engineers to use compelling and inspiring teaching techniques in their volunteer efforts in their communities.