Ignite Team Bios

Home Parish:

St. Patrick’s Church of Merna

Corpus Christi Catholic School

Family:

I was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago with my three younger brothers. We all attended Catholic schools for 12 years and we were immersed in our faith along with our very large extended Irish Catholic family. I met my husband, Rich, at Illinois State University and we were married in 1995. We have two amazing sons, born in 1997 and 1999. Our older son, Richie, was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome when he was 9 years old. Our younger son, Jack, has ADD. They both attended public schools and were provided services through their IEPs. In 2015, we adopted our daughter, Margaret Grace, from China. Maggie has Cerebral Palsy and uses a walker to ambulate. She is cognitively unaffected and performs at grade level in both reading and math. Maggie is an amazing little girl who attends our local public school and has many friends.

Career and Volunteer Affiliations:

I graduated from Illinois State University with a degree in elementary education. In 2000, I completed my Master’s Degree in literacy instruction. I have a 20 year career in elementary education which includes classroom teaching, working as a reading specialist and then finally working as a teacher leader for McLean County Unit 5 School District. I provided professional development for teachers in best practices for literacy instruction. I am currently a stay at home mom so that I am able to provide the best care possible to Maggie.

I have also taught Religious Education for several years at St. Patrick’s Church of Merna.

Reasons for serving on the FIRE Foundation board:

The Catholic schools in my community were not equipped with services that would allow my children to attend one of their wonderful schools. Because resources were unavailable at the schools, Richie, Jack, nor Maggie were able to receive a faith based education. This greatly saddened me. My faith is indrecilby important to me and I grew up feeling my faith all around me. I believe a child’s disability should not exclude them from a faith based education. The definition of “catholic” is “universal”. I believe a Catholic education should be extended to any family desiring their child to be raised in the Catholic faith.