A native Californian, I was born and raised in Fresno, one of the most diverse communities in the state. My ethnicity is Armenian and Greek, and all four of my grandparents emigrated to the United States around the time of WWI. I am a child of the 60s, and when I was growing up there was a great music scene in my hometown and I was fortunate to go to a high school that had an emphasis on the performing arts. As a student at Theodore Roosevelt High School, I was very active in speech and drama. These interests and experiences became the basis for my path in higher education which culminated in becoming a first generation college graduate with a B.A. in Speech Communication from CSU Fresno and an M.A. from UC Davis in Rhetoric. As a student at CSU Fresno, I competed on the speech and debate team where I engaged with some of the most intelligent and insteresting students I had ever met. We had some great coaches who helped us win many awards in individual events and debate. My primary events were Oral Interpretation of Literature and Persuasive Speaking. Because of speech, college is where education really "clicked" for me, and I graduated from CSU Fresno summa cum laude. Doing well as an undergrad paid off because I was rewarded with a graduate teaching assistantship at UC Davis. It was there that I was mentored as a teacher by several fine professors. Upon receiving my master's degree, I taught Speech and coached the speech team at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas.  After two years, I returned to California where, again, I taught and coached the speech teams at Diablo Valley College and Chabot College-Valley Campus (now Las Positas College). In 1986, I left the east bay to teach at Santa Rosa Junior College. During much of my time at SRJC, I have coached Forensics for the highly successful Bearcubs Speech and Debate Team, with an emphasis on public speaking, oral interpretation of literature and readers theatre. In the Fall 1991 semester, I had the great honor and pleasure to teach in the SRJC London Semester Abroad Program. In addition, I've served as Chair of the Communication Studies Department for four years. Over the years, I have especially enjoyed serving on the Academic Senate's Graduation Speaker Committee and coaching the student speakers . My 33 years at SRJC have been very rewarding as I love seeing the changes and growth that occur in my students every semester. I live in Santa Rosa with my husband Patrick, also an educator. We have two wonderful children, Sean and Masha.