Ms. Knapp received her B.A. from Whitman College, with a major in English and a minor in Spanish. After college, she moved to Taipei, Taiwan, where she studied Mandarin Chinese and taught English at several schools, including National Taiwan Normal University and Mingchuan Girls’ College. She returned to the U.S. to attend graduate film school at UCLA, from which she earned an MFA in screenwriting. She is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West. While working in the film industry, Ms. Knapp began doing volunteer work with inner-city school children in Los Angeles. This experience convinced her to return to the field of education. She received her teaching credential and master’s degree in education from Pepperdine University. Ms. Knapp taught kindergarten, first grade, and K-2 multiage in the Los Angeles Unified School District before moving with her husband, Stephen, to his hometown of Ogden.