I knew early on that I wanted to work with people who had special needs. I started on this path while still in high school and it only reinforced that working with people exhibiting challenging behaviors would be a great fit!  With that in mind, I graduated from IUP and got my first job teaching in a school for children who had been identified as emotionally disturbed in Key West, Florida.  It was a wonderful experience but I decided to come back to Pittsburgh and then worked at Pressely Ridge and the rest of the time with Pittsburgh Public Schools, first as an employee for almost 15 years and more recently as a facilitator for the last 10 years.  I have been fortunate enough to forge wonderful and lasting relationships with the teams I have joined over the years and enjoy working collaboratively with them to allow the children and teachers to be as successful as possible.