Tawnya was born in Peoria, Illinois, and raised in Texas. She spent over a decade as a web developer, and currently mentors undergrad students in the IT field. She put herself through college cleaning houses, working for a greenhouse nursery, and spending days at her local college cleaning porn off lab computers. She says the lab experience haunts her to this day but the Master’s degree was worth it.
She’s spent the last year or so studying the Irish language. Her Irish is poor, but she’s fine-tuned her skills at ordering a pint of Guinness. It comes in handy after a long day of chasing children around and hearing how “the dog ate” her students’ homework.
She resides in Austin, Texas with her 3 children, and their dog and cat.