Imagine yourself in a room, not just any room, but the room – the room that everyone wants to be in for English. “What room is this?” you ask. Ms. Greene’s room, of course. The teacher who you can be yourself with, the teacher whose blunt personality makes you want to give her a high five, and the teacher whose passion for English can be felt from any seat in the room.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Ms. Greene credits her upbringing with making her who she is today. “Being the youngest of four kids in an Italian-American household made me an expressive person,” says Ms. Greene, who is also a person who speaks the truth and makes you laugh, no matter how tired you are at school. While she may seem a natural teacher, Ms. Greene really had no idea regarding what she wanted to do for a career when she finished high school, so she settled on radio and TV production. As for why she chose this field, she simply replies that most of her friends were interested in the radio/TV production industry, so she took an interest as well.

She majored in radio/television production at the University of Maryland and, soon after graduation, got an internship at CNN. “Everything happens for a reason,” she says. While interning at CNN, Ms. Greene took a chance on a job opening at C-SPAN, and then after a few years working at C-SPAN, she applied for a job opening back at CNN.

In her 13 years at CNN, Ms. Greene was often praised for her work. However, despite liking her job at CNN, she felt as if she wanted to do more in life, which led her to teaching. In her tenth year at CNN, she went back to school to take numerous English classes in preparation for teaching. Her passion for English has always been with her, she says, as she has always enjoyed reading, writing, and even Shakespeare. “I’ve always loved English!” she says.

So, after 13 years behind the camera, Ms. Greene decided to step away out from the back and move into the front of a classroom filled with students. “It was a leap,” she says. “It was a huge leap.” Not entirely sure she had made the right decision to become an English teacher, she soon stepped into a room where she felt right away that she was meant to do this. “I stepped into the classroom and was like, I love this,” she recalls. This love for teaching continues. “I love teaching because I think I am a teenager at heart,” she says.

When Ms. Greene isn’t busy grading papers or reviewing work from her English and TV Production classes, she spends her free time with the people she loves and her dogs. She also loves to run, swim, weight lift, and even do P90X. When asked what keeps her going or what her mantra is, she chuckles and says, “Never give up, never surrender,” a reference from the comedy Galaxy Quest. But what really keeps Ms. Greene going is her philosophy on life: “I work hard, I do the best I can and I hope I’m making a difference.”