Prior to my time at Syracuse University, I earned a degree in Social Foundations of Education (M.A., Oklahoma State University) and a degree in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing (B.A., University of Missouri-Columbia). At Syracuse, I have also earned a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Women and Gender Studies and a Certificate of University of Teaching from The Graduate School. In public, private, and community organizations, I have worked as a middle and high school humanities teacher, an academic lead and academic administrator, a tutor, a director of a transitional program for refugee youth, grant writer, and curriculum writer and developer. Through these experiences, I embrace a trauma-informed, place-based, culturally responsive, and contemplative pedagogical practice. Currently, my dissertation project, "Pre-service teacher meaning-making within an ecojustice learning group" explores the use of contemplative outdoor practices as part of environmental justice learning in teacher preparation.
In my doctoral studies, I utilize an interdisciplinary and qualitative inquiry approach to peace studies, contemplative studies, ecojustice and ecofeminist studies, critical museum and memory studies, postcolonial studies, teacher education, and anti-racist and decolonial education. My dissertation work focuses on (e)contemplative practices for ecojustice learning in pre-service teacher education. My work has appeared in the journals the Australian Journal of Environmental Education, the Journal of Peace Education, the Journal of Environmental education, Educational Abundance, and Vitae Scholasticae: The Journal of Educational Biography, as well as two peer-reviewed book collections, Educating for Peace through Countering Violence: Strategies in Curriculum and Instruction and the forthcoming Pilgrimage Phenomenology Project.
At Syracuse University, I served for two years as a teaching assistant in EDU 310: The American School, and in Fall 2024 began co-facilitating as an instructor of record in the Intergroup Dialogue Program course "Dialogue on Racism and Anti-Racism." I also serve as a Teaching Mentor for The Graduate School, an elected graduate voting member of the School of Education Assembly, and Co-President of the School of Education Graduate Student Council. In Spring 2025, I was awarded Syracuse University's Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award.
Additionally, in Spring 2025, I was a co-recipient for the Syracuse University School of Education's Joan N. Burstyn Endowed Fund for Collaborative Research and a co-recipient of Syracuse University School of Education's Research & Creative Grant Award.