As a Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES), my professional training is rooted in equipping, empowering, educating and motivating individuals to live happier, healthier lives.  From the beginning of my career, I was taught to be intentional about how people learn, adapting communication and instructional strategies to support auditory, visual and tactile learners.  This foundation shaped me not only as a health educator, but as a reflective and responsive teacher.

My development as an educator was further shaped by life as a military spouse.  Over the first 27 years of my career, our family relocated every two to three years, ten moves in total, providing me with the opportunity to work within diverse communities across the country.  These experiences taught me the importance of listening first, honoring cultural values and believes, and adjusting messaging to meet the unique needs of each population I severed.  Adaptability, cultural sensitivity, and empathy became central to my teaching practice long before I entered the online classroom.

After teaching eight in-person semesters on George Mason University’s campus, our family received military orders transferring us from the Washington, DC area to South Florida in the summer of 2016.  During this transition, Dr. Laura Poms offered me the opportunity to continue teaching Health Education and Promotion (GHC 350) online, a course I had previously taught on campus. This marked my intentional transition to online teaching four year before the COVID-19 pandemic forced many course into virtual formats and allowed me to thoughtfully redesign the course for online delivery rather than simply adapting it out of necessity. 

My initial hesitation stemmed from an online course that I took prior to enrolling in my master’s program.  I withdrew from the course because it felt disorganized, outdated, and disconnected.  That experience highlighted how ineffective online design can waste students’ time and diminish motivation. It also helped me make my decision because I knew I could and should do better for my students.  As I have learned throughout my adult life, when meaningful challenges present themselves, growth happens by stepping forward.

Transitioning my course from an in-person to an online environment required thoughtful redesign, intentional communication, and a renewed commitment to clarity, engagement and presence.  I embraced the challenge, ensuring that course materials were current, expectations were transparent, and students felt seen through timely feedback and instructor engagement. These experiences, grounded in my background as a health educator, shaped by mobility and diversity, and refined through intentional course design, ultimately formed the foundation of my online teaching philosophy.

These professional and personal experiences have led me to define my personal philosophy through a set of simple, personal commitments that guide how I live, teach, and mentor, and one I intentionally apply to my online teaching practice.