My educational career started in my hometown of Marion, Iowa, at Starry Elementary school where I decided I was going to be a teacher after being in Mrs. Parman’s kindergarten class. I attended undergraduate at Cornell College, and had post graduate experience at Drake, Morningside, and Viterbo.

While serving in DMPS, I’ve had the opportunity to wear several hats, as a Professional Learning Facilitator, and as a special education consultant, a behavior interventionist, and a teacher before that. Regardless of the role, my core values have always aligned with service, equity, and disruption. I have worked with the intention to dedicate my career to advocacy, activism, and continued growth toward equitable outcomes for all learners. 

My preferred pronouns are she, her, hers. I live on the south side of Des Moines – the land of Sauk and Meskwaki, with my husband, Derek, and our dog, Durby. Outside of school, we are often with friends and family, bike riding, camping, traveling, eating good food, and listening to good music. I also love reading, working out, being in the sunshine, my birthday, a cozy snowstorm, and Iowa Hawkeye football.

Trenton Williams is a global educator and graduate of Lincoln High School, Class of 2000, where he was valedictorian, commencement speaker and student body president. Go, Rails!

Williams earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and French from Luther College in Decorah, IA, graduating Magna Cum Laude. He holds a master’s in educational leadership from the State University of New York in Buffalo, NY. Williams also completed an education specialist degree at Drake University.

Before coming to work for Des Moines Public Schools in 2015, Williams spent 11 years teaching abroad; two years teaching at the Dubai American Academy, United Arab Emirates; seven years at the Singapore American School, Southeast Asia; and two years at the International School of Stavanger, Norway. For the past four years, he has served as an interventionist at McKinley Elementary and a Released Dean at Jackson Elementary.