Having counseled recovering addicts in New Jersey and taught sociology at East Stroudsburg University last year, a Northampton County woman was charged with selling heroin authorities said was found in her home during a Wednesday search.

Tara E. Bealer, 41, of East Chestnut Street, Nazareth, is charged with four counts of drug possession with intent to deliver, six counts of drug possession, 71 counts of drug paraphernalia possession, two counts of marijuana possession and one count of endangering a child's welfare by selling drugs with a child in the home.

Nazareth police said they responded Nov. 21 to a reported overdose at Bealer's home and found heroin packages, but did not say if anyone was charged at that time. This prompted an investigation involving police having someone make three purchases of heroin from Bealer at her home.

Assisted by a Bangor police drug dog, Nazareth police executed a search warrant Wednesday at Bealer's home. Found were six bags of heroin, small amounts of marijuana, packaging supplies, devices used to facilitate drug usage and several bills of U.S. currency used to buy drugs.

Bealer was arraigned on charges and ordered detained in Northampton County Prison, where she still was as of Friday, in lieu of $50,000 bail. She's scheduled for a future district court hearing.

"I was shocked at first when I saw this in the news," said ESU senior Gabrielle Marcantoni, a social work major who took Marriage and Family and Intro to Sociology courses under Bealer in 2014 and 2015. "Then again, I'm not surprised because something about her always seemed off. I remember her missing a lot of classes and sometimes being late. And she seemed to have this rude attitude toward some of the students."

ESU junior Kathleen Kraemer, an English and sociology major, is editor-in-chief of ESU's student newspaper, The Stroud Courier.

"Professor Bealer was animated and tried to engage the class, but she wasn't very successful because of the large class size," said Kraemer, one of Bealer's Marriage and Family students last spring, not recalling any rude attitude. "She did miss quite a few classes. When she did, not even her student assistants knew where she was. I was initially surprised myself when I became aware of the criminal charges because she didn't come off to me as the type to use or traffic in drugs. Then again, she did miss a lot of classes."

A Cedar Crest College and Lehigh University graduate, Bealer in 2000 spent seven months as a counselor working with recovering addicts at New Hope Foundation in Marlboro Township, N.J., according to her LinkedIn profile. She later spent a year as a campaign organizer for Renew Lehigh Valley, an organization founded in 2005 to help Lehigh Valley municipalities improve their governance, planning and growth.

In 2008 and early 2009, Bealer was a mobile therapist for Allentown-based Valley Youth House. Her clients, ranging from ages 5 to 18, struggled with the effects of addiction, abuse, neglect, abandonment and mental illness.

From 2006 to last year, she taught sociology at ESU, Northampton Community College and other schools in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, states her profile. "I want to save the world" is written in the profile's "summary" section.