Born in Nebraska on a farm, I always imagined being out in the world making a difference.  During high school, I had the opportunity to work with a director from Dallas, Texas that opened my eyes about Art.  I soon realized I wanted to be part of theatre.

 

I was the first one of my family that left the state for college.  During college at Northwest Missouri State, I thrived in production after production taking in whatever I could.  My college curriculum was in general theatre with emphasizing in business.  My heritage and interest in history of theatre brought me to study abroad in Musical theatre and Shakespeare in London, Paris and Ireland.   This was a great experience and gave me motivation to continue working and developing my skills in theatre.

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Creativity and inventiveness have earned me many opportunities across the United States.  I was able to work in Colorado, North Carolina, while continuing heading to Des Moines Opera every summer working in Opera.   Working in the costume world, I have found many doors opens in a wide array of mediums.   Theatre, opera, dance, and film are all areas I enjoy to use my talents.  It was not until graduate school, that I realized how fulfilled I was when I saw the pride in my students’ eyes.  I was fortunate to go right into academia and never look back.

While teaching since 2002 at Marquette University, I strive when working on social justices pieces each year that truly touches my soul.   I feel my heart, ears and eyes need to open others on how we can amplify voices to help the ones that cannot.  If I can help change ones’ opinion to make the world a better place, I am doing my job!  I hope you enjoy seeing a slice of my life in this gallery of work.  As an artist, it is important for me to build work that encourages interest and collaboration of artists with the students around me.  It is imperative that they take the journey with me to learn and give them the risks to succeed.  They also need the safety of failing to learn and move ahead.  If a student can learn from failures as much as their successes, I am doing my job as an educator.