Calling Texas home for the last 29 years, Mrs.Gunnels is originally from Georgia and earned her B.S in Biology from Auburn University. 

She has been teaching science in Plano for 22 years, which has included positions at Bowman Middle School, Renner Middle School and Rice Middle School before coming to Academy High School in the fall of 2013. While at Renner, Mrs.Gunnels was team leader, science department chair, Teacher of the Year, STEM Award Finalist for the district, and given the Spirit of Renner award by the students. Mrs. Gunnels was an Academy Teacher of the Year Nominee and earned the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2017. Passionate about how students learn, she loves to be innovative and creative in the classroom to engage, excite and enthuse her students. Encouraging students to be confident and take risks to learn to be independent and collaborative problem solvers is her goal.

Mrs.Gunnels has been married for 35 years  and they have two children: Michael, who is a graduate of SMU with a biomedical engineering degree and works for SW Associates Consulting Engineers, and Mallory, who is a graduate of UTD and works for IBM.