Madeleine Youmans was born in Seattle in 1962, moved to Ithaca, NY to get her undergraduate at Cornell in 1983, then to Los Angeles where she earned her Ph.D. in 1996, before moving to Huntsville, AL to become the Director of TESOL and ESL at UAH. Along the way, she taught many people, travelled to many countries, made many friends, and touched many lives.