Hello, I am the Director of the Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing (LR&W) and Appellate Advocacy Programs at the West Virginia University College of Law. In addition to directing these two programs, I teach two sections of LR&W and work with the Academic Support Program.

I am one of those folks who "discovered" the law later in life. After teaching in both elementary and high school classrooms in the 1970s, I decided to make a career change that would allow me to study something entirely new. Believing that my prior degrees and teaching experience in the areas of speech, drama, English, and journalism gave me the perfect background for becoming a litigator, I attended and graduated from the College of Law. I then worked with the law firm of Steptoe and Johnson in Clarksburg, W.Va., where I was a member of the litigation department and handled medical malpractice and construction cases.

In 1990, however, my love of teaching prompted me to return to the classroom and I came back to the College of Law to teach LR&W. In 1992, I was named Director of LR&W, a two-semester program for all first year law students that teaches the basics of how to perform legal analysis, conduct legal research, and write various kinds of legal documents. I also implemented our current Academic Support Program at that time. In 1994, I began directing the Appellate Advocacy Program, which is the third semester in the College of Law's writing curriculum.

I am a native of West Virginia, having grown up in the eastern mountains near Snowshoe Ski Resort. While not an avid skier, I enjoy the outdoors and now live on an "organic beef" farm near Morgantown with my husband Gary (also a lawyer) and my two very athletic and overcommitted college-age children, Mark and Karen. Needless to say, my days are full.

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