I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and moved to Florida in 1961. I went on to graduate from Naples High School, Edison Junior College, and University of South Florida in Russian and Spanish. Post-graduate studies at Syracuse University and the University of Wisconsin led to a Master of Arts degree in Slavic Linguistics from UW.

I've been awarded fellowships in a Russian language summer immersion program at the Indiana University; a six-week overseas study program in Russia (sponsored by the University of Colorado); the King Juan Carlos Fellowship to study Intensive Spanish at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain (1992); a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1999) at the University of Oregon on Mexico and Mexican-American literature, a fellowship provided by the Florida Center for Teachers (sponsored by the Florida Humanities Council) in Art and Culture, and in 2001, was invited to Washington, D.C. to sit on a panel evaluating funding projects for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). In 2003, I became a nationally-recognized board certified teacher through NBPTS.

Currently, I am in my 39th and final year of Spanish in the Highlands County School District at Sebring High School. I had computerized a Spanish curriculum by writing supplemental lessons using self-authoring software. I created a classroom website to serve as a resource for my students. "After all these years in the classroom, I still love the challenges and continually strive for professional growth. He had taken on extra duties of mentoring new candidates working towards board certification as well as serving as mentor and liason other teachers in the district.

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(cont...) Hobbies are travel (details can be found in Suzan's bio), plants, and music. I was classically trained in piano at the University of Cincinnati, and currently serves as organist at the Spring Lake Presbyterian Church and accompanistfor a local community chorus. My biggest toy is a Yamaha Motif 8 electronic keyboard which allows me to spend weekends and summers arranging and orchestrating music. I have recorded three CDs with personalized arrangements of clasical and sacred music and has composed six original choral and vocal compositions. I'm working on a CD which will feature only my compositions.