My Occupation:
I began my career as a teacher on a two-year teaching certificate in the Panhandle of Nebraska. The school in which I began was a one-room country school, K-8, sans indoor plumbing and running water.  The school, between Big Springs and Lewellen, was a 15 mile drive on country roads from town.  The first year I taught I was expected to wear dresses.  However, I didn’t let that stop me from hunting pheasants on the way home from school. I taught there for two years and then moved to a town school, K-12 in two adjoined buildings.  It was here that I completed my education at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. 

I moved next to Central City, Nebraska where I taught in a departmentalized upper-elementary school setting.  I achieved one of my major goals there – teaching sixth grade social studies – Mexico, Central and South America and Canada.  During this time, I earned my masters degree in counseling and educational psychology.  My next career move was to become an elementary counselor here in Wyoming.  I am still a certified teacher with elementary and middle school endorsements with several hours in special education. I also hold a K-12 counseling certificate.  While I doubt I’ll return to the classroom, I’ll continue to recertify each time it roles around.  Like my car, I go for longevity.

In 1980 my family and I moved to Sheridan.  I began work at the Mental Health Center then, and was privileged to work there for 23 years, most of it practicing in the comprehensively focused, community mental health center model established in the 60’s.  In this model, I worked as a generalist, and have experienced and witnessed a myriad of testimonies of the human condition. 

I went into private practice two years ago.  Health, well-being and successful living are the hallmarks of my practice.  Beginning this fall, I’m diversifying and my practice and I will also offer training, consulting and personal coaching.  I am a Master Practitioner and Health Certified in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).   I’m also trained in Thought Engines® technology that deals with stress resolution and habit control.  I have been working with the developer of Thought Engines® for over four years with gastric bypass patients from Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, http://www.weightlossengines.com. I also find Thought Engines® to be very helpful with my other clients because of the effective and enduring outcomes they achieve. I had breast cancer in 1993 and consider it one of my greatest gifts (and teachers) that I’ve received in my life.  Naturally, my practice is most welcoming to cancer participants and their families. I am very open to others from our class who want to share their cancer journeys, both past and present.  Retire?  Who knows when, just someday - maybe? 

My Family:
I have been divorced for 14 years after 22 years of marriage.  I have two daughters, one who looks very English and Scottish and the other looks Spanish like her Cuban father.  My eldest, Wendy, is 28 and married to a Sheridan County Sheriff’s Deputy.  She has bachelor’s degree in social work and is the Program Director for a private group home for adolescent girls. It is the only group home that is certified by the State of Wyoming as a maternity home.  She’s not made me a grandmother yet, but is hoping that one of these days she’ll say it’s happening.

My youngest daughter, Kelly, age 22, is a senior at Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, Kansas.  She’ll graduate with a bachelor’s degree in social work in December.  She will live with me until she moves on to graduate school, possibly DU, in June or September of 2006.  She’ll pursue a masters in social work and become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.  Hmm, it seems that both girls have and are following in my foot steps.  Really, I’d love to have them both come into my practice. 

My mother, Laveta (Gordon, Wanley) Dinnebeck was Dr. Tillquist’s office nurse from 1954-1971. Then she worked for Dr. Kohler and Goeble for a couple of years before moving to Granby and Kremling with my step-father. Many WRHS students were patients of these doctors and may remember my mother.  She was often recognized as the “best tail gunner” in Wheat Ridge because of all the shots she gave.  I moved my mother to Sheridan in 1996.  She is a bi-lateral amputee.  Following each amputation, the first in 1988 and the second in 2003, she learned to walk again, an amazing feat for any one, but particularly true for someone her age.  My mother is 85.

Favorite Memories:
My memories of high school have been dimmed by chemotherapy.  I have so enjoyed the reverie each time I read someone’s bio and they tell of their favorite memories.  I’d forgotten that we had so many activities.  When I think of high school, in addition to friends and classmates, I think about the defining experiences fostered by our teachers.  We were taught critical thinking skills, how to write a decent paragraph, taught to type and given permission to become who we were meant to be.  I particularly remember, fondly now, painfully then,  Miss Lynen, Mr. Ellis, Mr. Manis, Miss Hill, Mr. Wetherbee, Mrs. Tenney and Mr. Trujillo.  Seminar in Social Studies was my favorite class and set the stage for the rest of my life. 
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