Education & Certifications
BA OF ARTS
Bowling Green State University
CERTIFIED SCRUM MASTER
Scrum Alliance
PRODUCT MANAGER CERTIFICATE
Product School
2021
Product Management Certificate

Successfully demonstrated that I can think like a Product Manager and have gained knowledge in:
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Defining a product strategy
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Experimentation - market analysis, customer development, strategic positioning & competitive
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Identifying Use Cases and developing user personas
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Achieving Product-Market fit - Quantitative & Qualitative User Research, MVP, A/B Testing
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Design Thinking - Wireframes, PRD, UX design
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Stakeholder Collaboration - Scrum, Product Roadmap, APIs & Integrations
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Product Marketing and GTM Planning
Final project focused on a new category feature for the work management tool, Smartsheet.
2021 - Current
Scrum Master Certification

Successfully demonstrated via the course and exam that I fully understand the Scrum framework & values, Empirical process, and Agile Manifesto Values.
Course and certification included:
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Scrum Theory
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Scrum Values
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Scrum Team (roles & responsibilities)
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Scrum Events
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Scrum Artifacts
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Empirical Process & Pillars
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Agile Methodologies and Values
2008
TEFL Professional Certificate

Professional certification for Teaching English as a Foreign Language.
120 hour online course + 35 hour TEFL Practicum.
Course included:
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Teaching for different learning styles, multiple intelligences, and language barriers.
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History of English and grammar
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Communication and teaching to ESL students
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Building lesson plans, exercises and tests.
35 Hour Practicum completed at a Chicago ESL and English in the workforce institute.
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, Ohio, USA
Bachelors of Arts
Graduated May 2004

Major: German
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language, culture, arts and linguistics
Minor: Marketing and Advertising
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Services Marketing, Advertising, Online Marketing (early internet days! 2002), Consumer Behavior
Programs
2002 - 2003 study abroad at Universität Salzburg.
Projects
2004: German Literature & Arts - Play production, screen translation, and video documentary for Heinrich von Kleist's "Amphitryon".
2004: Services Marketing projects- in depth evaluation of various services provided by companies, such as airlines, internet shopping, hospitality, local small businesses, and customer loyalty programs.
2002: German Linguistics - history and development of the Dutch language from the low Franconian dialect of the early West Germanic language.
2001: American Culture Studies semester project- Women's Body Image in media. Presentation with panel discussion.
Bowling Green State University & Universität Salzburg
Salzburg, Austria
Masters in German
- Partially Completed 2004 - 2005

First year of the BGSU Masters in German program was completed at the Universität Salzburg, Austria. After my first year, I made the very difficult decision to leave the Masters program.
During my year in graduate school, we focused on the literature, art and history of the German Weimar Republic.
My area of study and expertise was the former German Democratic Republic, specifically the time around the construction of the Berlin Wall, 1961 and its film company, DEFA.
For my research, not only did I read every book and watch every film I could get my hands on, but I also visited former East German (DDR) cities, such as Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin. In Berlin, I spent most of my time in the former eastern block of the city, visiting the museums and DDR relic shops. In addition, I spoke with personal friends who were born in East Germany and their families. In speaking to their grandparents, I got the opportunity to hear about the lives of East Germans before, during, and after the wall.
Master Thesis Project:
East German film company, DEFA's positive portrayal of Socialism and life in the GDR immediately before and after the construction of the Berlin Wall. Referencing Konrad Wolf's "Der geteilte Himmel" (Divided Heaven) and focusing on the main character's decision to commit her life to work and being part of building a socialist society.
Why German? My interest in foreign languages started when I was very young. My great grandparents and grandparents spoke Polish, although I don't remember more than a few words, but also, my father traveled all over the world throughout most of the 80's & 90's, bringing us back items (books, cards, toys, food, etc) from all the countries. Japanese, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, German, this list goes on. Out of all those languages, I was so fascinated by the way the German looked and how I was able to recognize some words, because they were similar to English words. Around age 11, I started teaching myself German. My father knew enough to be conversational and my older sister was taking German in high school, so they also shared what they knew with me and by the time I entered high school and took my first German class, I knew more than my classmates! Since German is a grammatically complex and difficult to learn language, this scared away most students. I admit that it was pretty hard and at times I wanted to transfer out and just take Spanish or French. However learning German taught me the valuable skill of never giving up! When you fail, dust yourself off and try again and that hard work really does result in success. By the time I graduated high school, I was extremely comfortable with having conversations in German and understood just about everything that I read. After spending a year in art school, I transferred to a university. A little lost in what I wanted to study, I signed up for German, because I loved it. After my assessment with the professor, she tested me out of all beginner and intermediate level German classes and talked to me about making it my major. As a German Major with a strong base in the language, I was able to dive in deeper to the linguistics, origin and evolution of the language as we know it today. My love of the Germanic branch of language has taken me on to learn Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish. Why the Interest in the DDR? My interest in the former GDR (DDR) started after seeing the wall coming down in 1989. A few years later, my father traveled to the former east for business, bringing home a lot of pictures of the factories he worked at, but also of the city and landmarks in the area. I specifically remember looking at the sky blue, lime green and off-white little boxy cars in the background – the Trabi. In my Junior year, we had two German exchange students in my school. One from Leipzig and the other from Berlin. Both were born in East Germany. They were surprised by my interest in the former GDR and were open to sharing their memories of living in it, the protests, and the wall coming down. After graduating high school in 1998, I spend five weeks in Leipzig. While there we also visited Berlin and Dresden and in all three cities, the buildings, roads, and people still provided me a glimpse into the former GDR. I returned again almost yearly from 2000 through 2008, 2015 with the last time being 2022. With each visit, less and less of that era was visible.
OTHER UNIVERSITY STUDIES
The University of Toledo
Toledo, Ohio

Columbia College Chicago
Chicago, Illinois

Fall 2000 - Summer 2001: Part-time student
General education classes with a focus in German Language and culture.
Programs:
UT - Darmstadt Exchange Program
Summer 2000
Scholarships & Awards:
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Herbert. B Schering Exchange Program and Award in German Studies
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German Scholarship Fund
Fall 1998 - Summer 1999
Cinematography and Film/Video Production
Strong focus on storyboard development and design, writing, character development, film editing, general film production, and the art of film.
Projects: (All films were silent and produced on 16mm B&W reversal film using a Paillard Bolex Camera)
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(1) Three-minute film editing exercise in which each student received the same reels of film and were tasked to edit them using the film editing style of your choice and why.
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(1) Five-minute group film production in which students collaborated on the plot, storyboard development, casting, pre-production, production, and editing.
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(1) Five-minute class film production in a studio. Everyone presented a story and one was selected to be produced. We worked together to build the sets, set up the lighting and each student took on their desired role. My role was as a producer in which I kept the "crew" on time, in positions, and worked through the shot list - working with the "director" to cut when needed for time.
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(1) Five-minute final film production in which I developed my own story and characters, scouted out locations, built my own storyboards that detailed out how the scenes were to be filmed, casted my actors, "hired" my crew, set the schedules and produced my own film. Post production was days spent in a dark editing room, cutting and splicing my film.
Perrysburg High School
Perrysburg, Ohio
Graduated in 1998

Four - year High School for College Prep
Grades 9 - 12
Courses:
Literature - American, British
Mathematics - Algebra, Geometry
History - American, British
American Government
Language - German (4 years)
Science - Earth Science, Biology, Microbiology, Chemistry
Arts - Painting, Drawing, Ceramics, Photography
Clubs & Programs:
German Club
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Representative (grades 9 -10)
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Vice President (grades 11 - 12)
Environmental Club
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Member (grades 9 - 10)
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Executive member (grades 11 - 12)
Student Council
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Representative (grade 10)
Photography Club
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Member (grades 11 - 12)
Awards:
German - American Society Award - 1996 and 1997
Honor Roll - 1997 - 1998