While walking down the C hallway on the basement floor, you have all smelled the delicious aromas wafting out of hospitality management teacher Lisa Gilbert’s kitchen.

However, you might not have known that she has a eye for fashion and a head for business.

Gilbert was born and raised in the south, but if you asked where she lived, she couldn’t tell you.  While Gilbert was always moving throughout her childhood, she never moved further north than Georgia. “I moved 21 times in 18 years, all over the south,” Gilbert said. Even though Gilbert moved around a lot, she finished her junior and senior years at Gainesville High School in Georgia. 

Growing up, Gilbert was always busy. When she wasn’t in 4-H meetings, she was cooking or sewing.  “I was huge into 4-H,” Gilbert said.  In addition to those more traditional pursuits, Gilbert showed off her skills with a gun. “I was on the rifle team and I was number two in the state,” Gilbert added.

Most people want to follow in their parents’ footsteps, but when Gilbert was growing up, that was the last thing she wanted. “No, I was not going to be a teacher because my mother, my three aunts, and grandmother were all Home Ec teachers,” she said.  Instead, Gilbert decided to go to Gainesville community college for fashion merchandise, and she managed clothing stores for many years. 

Gilbert has lived in Maryland since January 1994, but did not start teaching at Watkins Mill until 2004. She was teaching cake decorating classes at Michaels, and one of her students, who taught at Watkins Mill, told her she should teach at Watkins Mill as well. While she was reluctant at first, she eventually agreed. “The teacher that was teaching the restaurant management and child development at Gaithersburg said, ‘You have to do this,'” Gilbert said.

From the moment students walk into the door, Gilbert engages them and gets them interested in different cuisines and cooking styles.   Senior Melissa Torres said she enjoys Gilbert’s class because of “the different recipes she uses.”

“She is always interacting with the students,” Torres added.  “She always wants us to have fun.”