After graduating from Robinson High School, I attended the University of Florida with plans to become a nurse. While there, I realized that nursing was not my calling, so I moved home, got married and became a permanent substitute teacher at my high school Alma Mater. In 1978 I decided to return to school and felt that HCC would be the perfect fit, with low tuition and the flexible hours I needed to raise a child. It was at HCC that I found my passion for art history. HCC helped find confidence in my educational direction and I enrolled at the University of South Florida and majored in art history. In 1979, I was accepted into the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. I moved back to Tampa after graduation and became the first Executive Director, Artists Alliance, Hyde Park, and later became the Director of Development for The Playmakers Theatre in Ybor City where Ybor City’s Guavaween was created. Having a desire to share my art knowledge, I returned to USF and earned B.A. in Art Education and, then taught K-12 Art for Hillsborough County Schools. In 1999, I was awarded a Fulbright to London where I taught Art & Design at an East End Girls School. Today I serve on the Hillsborough County Arts Council Board and Public Arts Committee and on the HCC Foundation, giving back to a school that gave so much to me.