I was born and raised in Northeast Missouri. After high school, I attended Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State) where I received a Secretarial certificate. I moved to Oklahoma and began working as an office assistant in the accounting office of a major oil and gas company. I thought accounting work looked interesting, so I went back to college to get my accounting degree. I graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor’s of Business Administration, Accounting major. I continued to work as an accountant in the oil and gas industry for several years. Later I went back to college again and received my Masters of Accountancy from the University of Oklahoma. During this time I taught various business classes as an adjunct at a small college in Moore, OK. My family relocated to Miami, OK in 1995 and I began teaching accounting full time at NEO in January of 1997.