Heather has called Northern Michigan her home for the past six years. She and her family moved from Milwaukee, WI in 2012 to begin growing their roots in Marquette, MI. Currently, she is entering her seventh year teaching full-time at Northern Michigan University in the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences program. Prior to this program, she obtained a Master of Arts in Speech-Language Pathology degree from Michigan State University. Preceding teaching at the University, she worked in the hospital, rehabilitation center, school, and long-term care settings from 2005 to 2012. Her clinical work has focused on a wide range of speech, language and swallowing disorders with special interests in the areas of traumatic brain injury and dysphagia. As a professor, she has adopted different roles, as needed – teacher, leader, consultant, counselor, and evaluator. Over the past years and the initial reason why she started teaching has to do with desire to create professionals that can work well with the individuals that she developed a passion for as a clinician. If she can do that, then she has met her goal.