Natalie Welcome

Natalie Welcome's Bio

The field of education has come as a second career and pleasant surprise for me. In May 2000, I completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University with intentions of becoming an all-star engineer. The program was extremely difficult and conflicted with my lack of confidence in mathematics. 

During college, I worked for the Industrial Engineering team as an intern at Boeing Aerospace in Huntington Beach, CA for an 8-month experience. The discontentment I felt towards my degree program was magnified in the workplace. A 20-year-old East Coast girl living in California for a summer and semester was quite a bit of fun. Working in a field that I did not enjoy was no fun at all.

After returning home and completing my bachelor’s degree, I accepted a position as a Technical Sales Engineer with Eaton-Cutler Hammer in Philadelphia, P, responsible for generating sales bids for heavy electrical distribution projects. The work was miserable for me, yet the incidental exposure to mathematics sparked new interests deeply learning about mathematics.

I returned to my hometown of Winston Salem, NC during the summer of 2006 and accepted a position as a high school math teacher. Many of my students were challenged with learning disabilities, behavioral inabilities, and language barriers.  Their challenges were often coupled with feeling inefficacy about mat. It was during this year of teaching that I discovered my passion and skill for uncovering the secrets of mathematics for students who often struggle with the subject. 

Since then, I moved to Barrow, Alaska, where my family and I spent 6 years serving a local community in a small, Alaska Native village. I completed a Master of Arts in Teaching Mathematics with Liberty University, as well as a Master of Arts in Mathematics and a Doctor of Philosophy in Education with Texas Tech University.

My husband, Dwayne, and I have two teenagers, Xavier and Caleb. Currently, we live in Gilbert, AZ, where we hope to stay for many years. As a family, we enjoy traveling, watching movies, outdoor activities, and visiting museums. I love to read Christian theology books and especially like watching classic movies.