I grew up in Prairie Village, Kansas, graduated from Shawnee-Mission East H.S. and from the University of Kansas with a B.A. in History.  I married my college sweetheart Ron Wright who grew up in Independence, Missouri.   My work experience is varied – claims examiner for the Social Security Administration, chairside dental assistant in private dental offices while my husband went through dental school, and surgery secretary at KU Medical Center.  Our 1st daughter was born at KUMed Ctr.

The U.S. Army Dental Corps sent us to Heidelberg, West Germany for 3 years active duty.  This was before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the re-joining of East and West Germanies into the one nation it is today.   Our 2nd daughter was born in Heidelberg.

Living in a foreign country was invaluable to me.  The experience shaped my interests which have made me the person I am today.    We traveled every vacation and national holiday we could, driving throughout Europe in our light blue Fiat.   We explored the Gothic cathedrals of Germany and France.  Outstanding memories are of Notre Dame in Paris and the cathedral in Chartres, with its incredible stained glass windows.  We also saw Romanesque churches of Germany in the Rhineland, and the medieval and Renaissance cities of Italy.   I wanted to learn more.   I wanted to understand the artworks and architecture, also the people, and times, who created them.    In this way, I would make them mine. 

We returned to the United States, to Kansas City where my husband began his dental practice.  When our two daughters were in elementary school I entered graduate school in Art History, graduating with a Master of Arts degree in 1989 from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.   My thesis researched the 16th Century German painter Lucas Cranach the Elder, one of the 3 major German painters of the Renaissance North of the Alps in the 16th century. 

While at UMKC I worked as a graduate teaching assistant and in the art slide collection, which was   excellent practical training for my career as an art historian and college instructor.    I have taught at UMKC, at Rockhurst, and began at Avila with the fall semester 1990.   At present, we are bringing Avila’s art slides collection into the digital age.   Today, my classes include Power-point presentations.    There are more changes to come.    My own education is a work in progress.

My husband and I have returned to Europe many times, traveled to South America, and to China (under a Communist government.)  Often I do the cultural and art commentary for our travel groups.   I have speaking and reading ability in German, and reading ability in French, Italian, and Spanish.       

In addition, I am an appraiser of decorative and fine arts.    My training is through the American Society of Appraisers.  A complete appraisal is a legal document of the valuation and condition of an object or artwork at the time of the appraisal. 

Thoughts on teaching:
The work of education is work worth doing. 

My courses introduce students to Western civilization through the artworks and architecture of the West.   We look at its origins among the Paleolithic peoples in Europe, through the first civilizations in the Ancient Near East (today’s Iraq, Kuwait, and Syria, that is the Tigris & Euphrates River valleys,) in Egypt along the Nile valley ...to the Greeks, the Romans... and the changes Christianity brought... We study the art and architecture of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque and Rococo, the 19th  and 20th Centuries, and on to the presentday. No artist lives in a vacuum.  All are affected by the culture and events around them in their own time.  My classes look at the people and cultures that created these works of art and architecture. 
 
My assumption is that college students are the segment of our society that is most likely to travel beyond the borders of the U.S. – for business or pleasure or service.   My classes provide a preview of some of the world outside our country.

On each class syllabus I state my goal.  “I am here to advance your education, not merely to pass you through the system.”    I do believe that the work of education is worth doing.