I graduated New York University in 1984 with a dual major in History and Politics. Having worked at the South Street Seaport Museum as an undergraduate, I stayed on for a year until I was certain that I had a vocation in teaching. I was fortunate that my first teaching position was at Hunter College High School in NYC. My colleagues there influenced the formation of many of my life-long views on education, civics and the importance of civil deliberation in professional settings. In 1987 I earned a Masters degree in American History from Hunter College with a minor in European Intellectual History. In 1989 I began teaching social studies at North Shore High School in Nassau County on Long Island. I stayed at North Shore for twelve years and I’m still stunned by how quickly they went by. It was at North Shore that I became adept at teaching through and about deliberative methods including Socratic Seminar and Lincoln-Douglas Debate.  Since 2001 I have  worked in district-level administrative positions at several outstanding Nassau County School districts and I am currently a Curriculum Associate at the Jericho School District. In some respects Jericho reminds me of Hunter and makes me believe that, despite moving many years forward and two counties to the east, one can feel at home again. In 2008 I earned an Ed.D. from Hofstra University in Foundations, Leadership and Policy Studies. My dissertation title was Deliberative civic education and student civic engagement. My current responsibilities at Jericho include oversight of the K-12 social studies and secondary business education programs and a growing role in the district library program.