Between work, family and a passion for cooking, life for math department chair Leslie Deeb is anything but flavorless.

While she currently teaches precalculus and AP Calculus AB, Deeb has been teaching throughout Loudoun County for 21 years, 11 of which have been at Valley. 

In the morning, the first hour of her workday is devoted to helping students with AP Calculus—the pattern of helping kids continues throughout her day, even when she’s on hall duty.

“I try to take a kid-free lunch,” Deeb said. “But pretty much I’m just doing math all day long, sitting in meetings or teaching.”

Recently, her upperclassmen have been keeping her busy, with class preparations and practicing AP Calculus taking up an average of eight hours of her time throughout the week. Deeb notes that this is a change.

“Last year, if you’d asked me how much work I did a week,” Deeb said, “I would have said zero. But this year I’m teaching a new class, and it’s a ton of work. I’m re-teaching myself the calculus so I can turn around and teach it. So for every problem they do, I probably do 10 more.”

When all is said and done though, Deeb finds herself in the kitchen of her new house. 

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“I love to cook. I subscribe to about 10 different cooking magazines, and every week when I sit down to make my menu, I make things that I’ve never made before.”

She notes that the only times she’s repeated a recipe is when her family requests it.

“I’m really obsessive-compulsive about it,” she said with a laugh. “I choose one thing from every protein group, and I have no problem going home and taking an hour and a half to cook dinner.”

Though a notable favorite cuisine of hers is Thai, when asked what her favorite meal to make was, her answer was simple — “Just anything.”