I am a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. I started at UAM in 1991 as a visiting instructor for a faculty member on medical leave. After that year, I went to ASU-Beebe as an Instructor of Physical Sciences. After one year there, I was invited back to UAMDuring my time at UAM I've had numerous experiences:*Taught Intro, General, and Organic Chemistry courses with other courses in Science Ed, Physics, and Astronomy*Served as Director of the Pomeroy Planetarium*Did research with numerous undergraduate students*Was 2 time Faculty Excellence Gold Award winner for outstanding faculty member campus-wide*Served as NCAA Faculty Athletic Representative, and NCAA Compliance Officer, and still a member of the Eligibility Team*Did radio broadcasts for games*Completed a research/teaching sabbatical at the University of Tennessee and Berea College (KY)*Have publications in journals and presentations at professional meetings*Served as Chairman of the American Chemical Society Ouachita Valley section*Served as Dean of the School of Math and Sciences for 15 years*Won Alpha Chi Administrator of the Year 4 times*Served as Board Member for the Arkansas STEM Coalition*Served as Board Member for the Arkansas Dean's Association*Serve as the campus rep for the NASA-Arkansas Space Grant Consortium*Work with school districts' AP Chemistry classes to provide classroom instruction and test prep*Served as advisor for pre-professional programs in Pharmacy, Medicine, Optometry, and Dentistry during a period that had over 90% acceptance rate to those programs*Developed a new degree in Biochemistry that allowed pre-professional majors to easily complete the double major with Biology.*Was member of grant writing team for the first Ark-LSAMP grant establishing a minority research program at several universities in ArkansasTeaching is what drives me. I love teaching! I was hooked when, as a sophomore at Ark. Tech, I was asked to fill in for a few lectures for an adjunct on maternity leave. I knew then I would have a career as an educator. I took an education course and did some student teaching at Russellville H.S. In grad school I taught labs every semester, and was the 2 time outstanding TA award winner (AW Cordes award). It was departmental policy for grad students to not teach lectures, but I was given the opportunity to teach Intro Chem. That confirmed my goal of becoming a faculty member at a small college.It's been a great journey from the cattle farm in Clinton, AR to where I am today....from cow chips to computer chips!