Like you and your family, I know the value of a hard day’s work.

I have worked since I was 16 years old, starting at Captain D’s on Red Wolf Boulevard. I worked the night shift so I could balance my classwork. I maintained jobs at local grocery stores and waitressing in our local restaurants, all to pay my way through college.

I was proud to earn my teaching degree at Arkansas State University and to begin my teaching career right here in Northeast Arkansas.

Like so many of my neighbors, I learned what hard work was from watching my parents. My mother taught public school for over 30 years, and my father worked for years at the Caraway Post Office on East Street.