Teacher. Author. Speaker. Coach.

I have over 20 years experience working with youth and their families as an early childhood educator, marriage and family therapist, parent educator, administrator and faculty member, and Mom/Wife/Daughter/Friend.

I am the Interim Associate Dean and Director of Academic Programs for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences as NC State University. During my tenure, I have lead numerous research projects that focused on curriculum and program development for historically marginalized audiences and I have presented talks here and abroad on the topics of parenting, family life coaching, teaching with technology, and relationship education at national and international conferences.

I serve as Co-Founder and Chair of the Family Life Coaching Association and have been on the executive board of the National Parenting Education Network and the North Carolina Parent Education Network. My work at NCSU focuses on family life education, youth development, adolescent health, parenting, and relationship education.

I have had the great fortune at presenting talks to thousands of people abroad and across the US. I’ve given over 200 national and international talks, appeared on WRAL, ABC, NBC, Huffington Post and Spectrum News. I have written over 30 peer review publications, 14 curricula on family life, countless blogs, and two books (plus one more on the way).

Here I am in Spring, 2020 talking about stress in family life during COVID 19 on Spectrum News:

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My text book, Theory, Research, and Practice of Family Life Coaching has been used by scholars and practitioners to educate family scientists to utilize coaching to help families achieve their goals.

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Is COVID-19 School stressing you out? Here I am on Huffington Post talking strategies for reducing school stress.

Is COVID-19 still stressing you out? Here are even more tips on Huffington Post.