About

HeadshotI’ve been a writer forever, since before memory. The remnants of that early writing life are rough manila papers with those red and blue lines covered in pencil scribbles. And the book of stories and poems from middle school, printed by a dot matrix printer. And the binders of papers from college. And the Moleskin notebooks of grad school. And the printed drafts of my dissertation, hand edited. And the digital journal Teaching/Writing.

After being told that “girls don’t become engineers” by my high school guidance counselor, I decided to go to a terribly expensive private university and become an English teacher. Both the choice of school and profession were the right ones and continue to be the right ones.

All four of my grandparents had graduate degrees. My grandmother had a PhD in English and was a Twain scholar. I knew I was going to get a PhD before I started as an undergrad. And my family’s history with academia meant I wasn’t blinded by the light of grad school. It was a job, that I did, and knew I could succeed at. And I did.

Three children in Halloween costumes.Also about me, separate from and no less a part of me than the writer/teacher/scholar part: I have a family. Husband, three kiddos, and even a dog. Yes, all boys thankyouverymuch. No they are not a handful, not any more than three girls or two and one or one and two would be. Zone defense works, promise. And, yes, I have twins. And, yes, I survived and it was and is fine. And, yes, I had kids in grad school. And, of course, I don’t write as much as I *should* but I still do write. No, there’s no such thing as work/life balance, but about making choices and trade offs and having an amazing husband who is the support spouse and without whom I couldn’t do this, for reals.

And now I’m teaching, researching, writing, and serving at the most Catholic sounding school founded by an order of nuns who are nuns on the bus nuns. Living in an awesome city that’s huge and feels a lot like a small town.

A photograph of Mission Circle at the University of the Incarnate Word with the Chapel of the Incarnate Word.If you’re interested, here are several other places I show up on the interwebs.

ResearchGate page.

Academia.edu page.

University of the Incarnate Word page.

Instagram: @anndphd

About.me page.

Disclaimer: This website and its contents are the sole responsibility of its owner and do not reflect on any employer of said owner or any professional organization of which the owner is a member.