Alum Barbara Gerber: A Teacher's Tale of Risk and Reward

SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN -- As a child, Barbara Gerber harbored every writer’s dream: to write a novel. The Long Island native’s mother was an elementary school teacher, but Gerber wasn’t interested in that kind of work. Instead, she focused on writing and developed a career in journalism. Gerber, 52, earned a Bachelor’s degree in English at San Francisco State University in 1987, and then spent about 15 years as a journalist and freelance writer. Eventually, however, she began to feel as if she wasn’t making a difference in the world. So, she decided to become a teacher after all — and she launched her new career in Santa Fe.