Public and private sector workplace career including a public school teacher for more than 20 years, then four terms (1993-1999) in the Ohio House of Representatives, followed by an appointment by Governor Taft as Director of the Governor’s Office of Appalachia, and then in 2004 as Ohio’s 20th District State Senator. She then became the government affairs liaison for Central Ohio Technical College and later joined Ohio EPA’s Office of Outreach and Customer Support. Now semi-retired, she serves the Coshocton County Juvenile and Common Pleas courts as a Guardian ad Litem.