Lifelong learner. I have always loved to learn. In college I took this love of learning and studied education in order to bring rich opportunities for learning to students. Eventually, my love of learning took me to graduate school, where I studied learning in schools and school districts, trying to understand adult learning in practice-based designs.

Resourceful Pivoter. When the Covid-19 pandemic turned me into an online instructor, I recognized the challenges and opportunities of e-learning. That experience got me curious, and pushed me to innovate. I had to go beyond “translating this activity into a digital space” and instead understand how research from the learning sciences could inform best practices for course design, assessment, and meaningful experiences for my students. I have continued to use many of the modules I developed during this time, because I found that my students responded very well to the personalized, project-based designs I used when I was a remote-only instructor.

Empathetic designer. As a learning designer, I have a passion for analysis and problem-solving. I utilize strategies from design thinking such as building personas and empathy mapping in order to choose a solution, rather than defaulting to “info-dump” designs. And I analyze my own designs through a critical lens: whose perspectives are represented, privileged, and presumed in these designs? Whose are backgrounded?

Dice and skis. I love playing board games and D&D in my free time, and I have two large dogs. I live in Syracuse, which is known for snow. It took time to adjust as a native Texan, but I’ve quickly adapted!