DR has lived in every region of the east coast as a child. Unable to forget the blue mountains of Pennsylvania, she graduated from Appalachian State University in North Carolina and shortly after moved to this area. She held various jobs, but was unfulfilled at work and found meaning instead with her grayscale cats, their lovely father, friends and family, volunteering, and lots and lots of reading.

In Virginia, DR pursued a master’s degree in Elementary Education and saw that public schools were not living up to the ideals of the movements and thinkers she was studying. Learning is meant to be an active process where each student was an individual with their own story, needs, and interests, however the schools struggled with rigid requirements and an environment that tended to chafe rather than uplift. Our Neighborhood came as a welcoming surprise and an opportunity to turn DR’s values into action and see results in the organic joy of the students, and the insights and hope they carry from school through the rest of their lives