Kathy, a Charter Docent and current Docent Council Chair, says she has three passions: her family, teaching and creativity in any form. Most recently she joined the Green River Community College team, teaching GED courses. Her volunteer work includes: being involved with the Tacoma Model T Club and their fundraising efforts for an array of charitable causes, being a math tutor twice a month for a third grader in an after school program at her church and of course being a docent at the Museum of Glass.

Leading gallery tours every Friday morning, the first Sunday of each month and being actively involved in the Hotel Murano partnership, her fellow docents comment that she provides one of the best gallery tours at the museum. For Kathy, “glass really inspires me and since teaching is my other passion, I love synthesizing all that information and coming up with a great tour.” Her goals as a museum docent include ensuring that all visitors walk away awed by the art and artist, to ensure they can relate to the art in a human way and of course to ensure everyone has fun.

Her educational background is extensive; she earned a BsEd in English and Inner City Teaching from Illinois State, as well as a MsED in Adult Education and Community College teaching from Oregon State. She notes that, “all of my teaching jobs have been with very challenging kids in alternative high school settings, including West Auburn Sr. High and Collins High School in Buckley where I was a Director/Teacher. Of course there were all those years in prison, where I taught GED prep for ten years at Oregon Correctional Institution. They had to either get up at 4:00 a.m. and work in the kitchen or come to my class. I love that type of initiative and my classes were always full. I also did a stint teaching GED at RTC, GRCC and Chief GED examiner at Bates. Frankly, as much as I loved these experiences, they don’t hold a candle to how I feel being a MOG docent.”

Her favorite moments/memories happen when touring her favorite groups, elementary aged kids and seniors “because they are so observant and they see things about the glass that the rest of us miss, they are so ‘in the moment’ and real and excited about what they are seeing.” Two stand out moments from touring are, “when one very short little girl raised her hand as I was talking about Sherry Markovitz’s beaded doll titled Shine on Me and she said, ‘look, she has a tissue paper underskirt!’ By gosh she did! And when an eighty year-old women on a tour gazed seriously at Hank Murta Adams, Platterhead, and turned to the rest of her group and said ‘love that Punk Rock hair.’ Best of all I get to use their comments in my tours and they truly helped me LOOK at the glass.”