Dr. Gilson grew up in the East Bluff neighborhood of Peoria and is a proud graduate of Woodruff High School. After high school, Dr. Gilson went on to earn a BA in Comparative Literature (University of Wisconsin-Madison), MS in Education and Social Policy (Northwestern University), and PhD in English (Illinois State University). 

She has years of experience teaching both high school (Homewood-Flossmoor, Lane Tech, Pekin High School) and college (Illinois State) students and is excited to be working with students in the dual credit College Success courses at Woodruff.