I was born in 1940 in Des Moines, Iowa. My father was an Army Officer and during my very early years I lived with my older brother, my mother and her parents while my father was overseas. When he returned home after the war my Grandparents moved to their own home and my parents had another son.

My mother died when I was fourteen. A year later my father remarried and my brothers and I welcomed a new mother and sister into our home. My father retired from the Army in 1958, the same year I graduated from High School. The family moved to Joplin, Missouri, which is my stepmothers' home and my siblings and stepmother still live there. My father died when I was 27. My stepmother is well at the age of 83.

I received my education at Kansas State University in Pittsburgh, Kansas. I received a Bachelors Degree in Education and Mathematics in 1962 and a Masters Degree in 1963. In 1964 I moved to St. Louis to teach at St. Louis Community College. I left St. Louis from 1980 - 1982 to travel extensively in the United States and in Scotland, India, and Indonesia. I returned to St. Louis in 1983 and resumed my teaching career.

I joined the Global Education Committee of my college in 1992 and began to travel internationally with educational groups. In the summer of 1999 I was spokesperson for an educational delegation from St. Louis Community College to Hunan Normal University. I fell in love with the Chinese people and the spent the next fall teaching at Hunan Normal University.

I spend time doing volunteer work with American Friends Service Committee. This is a group that focuses on social justice and peace work. Our work in St. Louis involves working against police brutality, educating African American youth in community organizing, working to end the governmental sanctions against Iraq, and organizing for economic justice.

I am a feminist who believes that the liberation of women is a key to justice and peace in the world. I am an anti-racist who believes that racism is a plague on human kind and we must stop letting the race, ethnicity national origin, or religion of a person determine how we treat them. For recreation and enjoyment I like to travel, read, hike, kayak, ride my bike, go to movies, and play with children. I am looking forward to my retirement in three years.