Putting My Experience to Work
for the Students of North Andover
Get to Know About Joe
WHERE I COME FROM
I graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 2001. After graduation, I served in AmeriCorps National Civilian Conservation Corps, an intense 10 month residential volunteer program. My team was based in Sacramento, but we participated in service projects all over the West Coast. I had the opportunity to help run a homeless shelter in Salt Lake City, to help conserve an endangered species of cactus in the Sonoran desert in Southern Arizona, to build community playgrounds in Wasilla, Alaska, to carve a trail up the Bodenburg Butte in Palmer, Alaska, and provide disaster relief alongside the Red Cross when Guam experienced two typhoons within a week.
After my time in AmeriCorps, I moved to Northern Colorado where I worked in a residential treatment center for adjudicated youth, before returning home to Connecticut to begin a Master of Arts in Teaching program at Quinnipiac University.
I met my husband in New Haven in 2007. When work brought us to Massachusetts a decade ago, we chose North Andover in large part because of its school system. We wanted to raise our family and be a part of a tight-knit community while sending our kids to great public schools. We now live in the Library District with our twin 3rd graders and two labrador retrievers.
I currently serve as the co-treasurer on the Atkinson PTO and was an assistant swim coach at the Andover North Andover YMCA.
A THRIVING CAREER
I am currently a Social Studies Instructional Coach at Salem Public Schools where I support Salem High school and two alternative programs. I work with both individual and small groups of teachers to improve student achievement. I am excited to be at a school that consistently interrogates their practices and works tirelessly to build a high school that is rooted in student-centered standards based instruction that is more accessible, equitable, engaging, authentic, and relevant to our student’s lives. I am also proud to be a part of an organization that has embraced an anti-racist mission that actively seeks to dismantle barriers that limit our student’s potential.
Before Salem, I had the opportunity to be a founding faculty member of two high school programs, first at New Haven Academy in 2003 and later with the 9th Grade Academy at Lawrence High School. New Haven Academy, a small interdistrict magnet school, is located in New Haven, CT. As a classroom teacher, I worked to embed the school’s guiding principles of “think critically, be responsible, and get involved” in both my classroom and beyond. As the Assistant Program Director, I worked closely with the leadership team to plan and execute school wide initiatives and professional development for the entire faculty aligned with our mission and priorities. This position allowed me to think globally about how to ensure that the school’s mission was part of the everyday fabric of the institution and embedded in our curriculum. We also worked extensively with Facing History and Ourselves to develop a school rooted in creating students that embrace and celebrate their role in a democratic society.
The 9th Grade Academy at Lawrence High School was developed in response to Lawrence being placed under state receivership. I saw first-hand what can happen when a team commits to making our instruction more accessible to our students. Each day we worked to build a consistent and rigorous curriculum with clear routines and expectations across all classrooms.