About

I come from a family of teachers: my father is a Reform rabbi, which in Hebrew is “rav,” which means “teacher”; my mother formerly taught English as a second language to adults; and my sister is an elementary school teacher and a past winner of the NYC “Big Apple Award”.

Born in New York City (Upper West Side), and after a relatively-short stint in Buffalo, NY, I grew up in West Hartford, CT. A graduate of the University Honors Program at The George Washington University, I received a B.A. in English and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Before joining the English faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, I earned my M.A. and Ph.D. in English and American Literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.