After many years as a writer and editor for several publishers, including Wiley, Family Circle, Teachers College Press, McGraw-Hill, and Publishers Weekly, as well as helping launch Chicago Books in Review, I returned to academe in 1998. While holding an administrative post in Roosevelt University’s College of Education, I was able to pursue a doctorate, which I received in 2005 from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
My research focused on the religious roots of schooling in colonial America, 19th century schools on the American frontier, and contemporary issues in urban education. My dissertation was on the legacy of Chicago’s educational stateswoman Ella Flagg Young, the theorist and administrator who taught John Dewey how schools function as social institutions.
After receiving my degree, I taught at the Chicago City Colleges and then joined the Peace Corps, teaching for two years in Romania. Upon my return, I reunited with a man I had known in college and relocated to New Jersey. Work as an adjunct at Mercer County Community College provided me with an opportunity to teach at the state prison in Rahway, an experience that led to this book.
I am a member of numerous professional organizations, where I make frequent presentations, and I am active in a few community groups, where I tend to be involved in issues relating to schooling.
I have two daughters, two stepdaughters, and three grandchildren. This book is dedicated to them – and their generation.