I spent the early part of my life on a very traditional, high-achieving life path. I attended an all-girls preparatory school in Chattanooga, Tennessee and went on to graduate with a degree in Economics from Yale University, where I also captained the varsity women’s soccer team to its first ever Ivy League championship and top-20 national ranking. From there, I went on to study law at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC. While in law school, however, I began to feel like I was living my life from the outside in. I was making life decisions by referring to external benchmarks, rather than internal guidance. During law school, I began thinking about maybe becoming a teacher, but it just didn’t seem realistic given the investment I had made in my current life path. The discontent, however, did not subside. After graduating from law school, I made the difficult decision to defer practicing law and took time away to look inward for direction.

During that time, I started a meditation practice and began to reflect on activities in my life that had engaged me fully and brought me energy, focus and joy. I recalled endless childhood hours playing school in my room at home (I came from an extended family of teachers!). I remembered spending vacations doing math for fun. Soccer had been a consuming passion of mine for years, and I felt most alive and in sync while immersed in nature. With all of this in mind, I eventually mustered the courage to pivot away from my past trajectory. I got a high school math teaching and soccer coaching job at an independent school in Charlottesville, Virginia and began the difficult task of remaking myself as a teacher from the ground up.

This transition involved a steep learning curve. Adjusting to the school culture on the heels of training to be a lawyer, working with groups of teenagers, and digesting the full scope of the math curriculum were some of the challenges I faced during my first few years of teaching. It was an exercise in humility to make mistakes and learn and grow from them alongside my students.

Over time, I began to make my most meaningful connections with kids when we met each other side-by-side as collaborative teacher-learners, practicing math, soccer, and yoga together or planning school-wide Earth Day celebrations.

Several years into my time as a classroom teacher, I received a fellowship to attend Columbia’s Klingenstein Institute for Early-Career Teachers. This experience helped me clarify my identity as a math teacher. I loved math. I loved discovering new and different ways to present material to help students learn. I loved forging connections with kids. At the same time, though, the all-consuming nature of independent school teaching had begun to wear me down. A year later, after six years in the classroom, during which time I taught nearly every math course in the high school curriculum, I decided to open my own math tutoring business. Working for myself as a math tutor afforded me a more balanced lifestyle and allowed me to capitalize on my strength of working with kids one-on-one. The connections I had made during my time as a high school teacher and my ever-deepening understanding of and appreciation for the material paved the way toward becoming established.

It has now been over 15 years since I first opened my math tutoring business. I have helped hundreds of students navigate challenging episodes in their math careers and emerge more confident and capable on the other side. Throughout this time, I continue to grow alongside my students– my understanding of the material steadily deepens with every new teacher’s course I encounter; my manner of forging connections with young people evolves alongside my age, and my teaching philosophy continues to unfold and become more refined.

In 2014, my husband, Steve, left the classroom and joined the practice. Together, we parent our elementary school aged daughter, Mary-Louise – a labor of love that deeply informs our collaborative work with students.

“You are an amazing tutor! I have an A in math for the first time ever in 5 years.”
-E. H.

“There is no doubt that you are an amazing tutor and mathematician, but really, I can’t thank you enough for giving my H. her confidence back.”
-K. C.

“As always, thank you for all that you do for K. and J. They both benefit from your kind, gentle, and patient approach along with mathematical expertise, a perfect combination!”
-C. L.

“A note of thanks here for everything you’ve done over the past four years. You were a fantastic tutor—not only clarifying and reinforcing, but keeping H. engaged and in touch with the part of herself that really does like math. Beyond that, though, you were supportive of H., herself. She felt that you thought she was smart and capable, and that was as valuable as the actual tutoring. She has so much respect for you as a teacher and as a person.”
-W. C.

“Words cannot express how much we appreciate all the teaching, guidance and support you gave C. She went from hating math and self-defeated, to having a good attitude and excelling in Calculus! Wow! You are an amazing teacher and individual!”
-C. W.

“This card is way too small to fit all the gratitude I have for you over the past 3 years. Not even a million cards could account for all the help in math and life in general. Our sessions were more to me than just learning math.”
-M. B.

“Thank you so much for friendship and support all these years. You have helped all my children gain confidence and courage in the classroom. Your dedication to H. has been amazing. Thank you so much for everything.”
-J. M.

“We are so thankful you were there for K. in high school – guiding her through her studies and really being a special mentor.”
-S. H.

“Our heartfelt thanks for four years of math sessions with J. We are happy and hopeful for his success in college. Surely, the confidence he gained in math will be a huge benefit for him. Your clear instruction and patience is much appreciated.”
-A. C.

“Thank you for everything the past couple of years. Finding a tutor that was right for my brother and me was a long and grueling process, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. You not only tutored me in math but increased my appreciation for the subject and gave me someone I felt comfortable talking about my struggles with.”
– J. B.

“Z. and I were discussing her quiz, and she expressed how grateful she is to have you as a tutor. She feels you explain things so thoroughly and in a way that is very easy for her to grasp, and it has been an amazing confidence booster that she has handled this transition to honors so well… So thank you! It is such a joy to witness her success and sense of ease.”
-L. V.

“How can I thank you enough? You have been a part of our family for so long! There have been so many stressful nights where L. has been worried about a test, but you had prepared her. Thank you so, so much!”
-S. W.

“I wanted to take a moment to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your work and mentorship with N. you have transformed her, and from a mom to another: THANK YOU!”
-S. S.

“A. graduated from college today. He did it in 3 years – Summa Cum Laude! Thank you for all you did to help him get there. We still all speak so highly of you. He and I reminisced about his academic career… and he still says that you are the best math teacher he ever had. Both children say that.”
-C. S.

“You’ve been more than an academic tutor for A. You’ve led her to see her strengths and to work with her weaknesses. You’ve shown her that calm persistence will see her through and that she can actually do not only math, but lots of things that she might not have had the confidence to try.
Thank you for sharing your gift with us.”
– L. F.

“We are so deeply grateful to you for your excellent work with A. over the past two years. What a difference your help has made for her. And your kind, calm manner has been an extra benefit for her, especially during two such busy and often stressful years in her high school career. We can’t thank you enough for all you have done for her.”
-K. B.

“Z. was so stressed when he reached out to you, and you made such a difference for him. You taught him that he really can learn math, and with patience and care, he could even get a good grade! Most importantly, you helped fill in the gaps of knowledge that would have compounded throughout the years making it impossible to continue with honors level math. So, you have quite literally saved the day, his year, and his future.

Thank you so much for your skill with math, your patience with the kids, and your dedication and long hours. You are a blessing in our life.”
-C. K.