How many years have you been working at UNI?
Eleven.

Briefly describe your educational background.
Undergraduate degree in international relations from UW-Madison, MA in elementary education from The George Washington University, PhD in language culture and literacy education from Indiana University

Briefly describe your career background.
Former 5th-grade classroom teacher at an incredibly diverse public magnet school-economically, culturally and linguistically, in the DC Metro Area. I had the privilege of working with professional teachers who were researchers themselves and elevated my understanding of learning. After several years with a practitioner inquiry group focused on critical literacy led by teachers and Dr. Vivian Vasquez from American University, I pursued doctoral study. I was and am deeply interested in how discourse shapes our interactions and what teachers can do to advocate for the strengths of our students and the profession. At IU (doctoral work), I fell in love with teacher education and research.

Why did you choose this career path?
I thought I might be a pediatrician or a diplomat or maybe a florist. I really didn't expect to be a teacher. But, I always worked with children and was impressed by what they could do while I was a student. I found my way partially by accident--and partially through the relationships I developed along the way. For example, after graduating and not having a plan as a 22-year-old, I worked for Dane County Head Start. While I had a degree, I had little applicable experience in early childhood education beyond tutoring and childcare. By having the opportunity to work with some amazing educators and children, I started to ask new questions, then recognized I needed to learn more so I could become a classroom teacher. I was accepted to an MA program where I also earned my certification and had loads of classroom experiences. It was a great match for me and led me to Bailey's Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences where I taught fifth grade. My school colleagues and the wide array of opportunities I had as a classroom teacher changed my view on so many things. I engaged in arts integration workshops at the Kennedy Center, had the chance to be a Smithsonian Science teacher fellow, co-taught in an inclusion model classroom and developed a deep appreciation for language diversity through the critical literacy practitioner research group. I worked with educators who were invested in serving the whole child and all that meant in our context; we laughed a lot and sometimes cried together while doing so. These formative experiences are always part of my interaction with schools and students here.

What brought you to UNI?
A position in the Literacy Education Division opened up, and I was drawn to the teaching and research balance. I loved working with pre-service teachers as a doctoral student and loved talking with the faculty about their research. I have family in Wisconsin and spent many summers in Minnesota with my grandparents, so a midwestern town was also a draw for me outside of work.

What's your favorite part about UNI?
There is a sense of possibility — the students are committed to becoming excellent teachers, they ask different questions because of this commitment. I love working with both pre-service teachers and those in the field in our online reading endorsement and literacy education master's program. Faculty have a chance to try things out, and the support for further development as a teacher and a researcher is something I am grateful to have here.

What is your greatest professional accomplishment?
I don't know "greatest" — each time a former student emails to let me know about their hopes to pursue a master's or celebrate their classroom success, I am thrilled. When grad students get manuscripts published, I am equally excited. I have co-authored several pieces with colleagues across the U.S. and those connections have pushed me to keep learning. There is a mix of activities I am proud of, but not one in particular.

What is your area of research interest, and what drove your interest in this area?
I am involved in a collaborative ethnography with a grant funded by Purdue University that has investigated a virtual Literacy Clinic at Appalachian State University. This is an active project. I am starting a project with another colleague about feedback and the role it plays in literacy teacher education. Additionally, I am exploring what it means to be part of a cohort of faculty in an embedded field placement in Waterloo Community Schools. I work with four other faculty members and a cohort of pre-service teachers for the full semester. We are weaving practice and theory together on-site; this fall will be our second semester. It is exciting. I am also the director of the Literacy Clinic, which has long been embedded in local schools and have investigated how supervision and clinical practice is mutually beneficial. I have a lot of interests, but they are all linked to literacy instruction and centering students as capable literacy producers and consumers.

What does being student-focused mean to you?
High expectations and availability are essential to being student-focused. In education, we discuss strengths-based education often for PK-12 students, but I think we can do better in higher education to notice the strengths of undergraduate and graduate students. Many of my students have families they are supporting, work multiple jobs to pay for their education and are faced with challenge upon challenge, all the while entering a relatively low-paying profession that faces a lot of criticism. Being student-focused to me means recognizing that these are real issues. Being flexible is possible without undercutting the rigor of teacher education/coursework and listening to students matters.

What do you hope students learn from you?
There is always another way, and it is our responsibility to figure it out, not the child's job to fit into a little box. Kids are so diverse, and that was the thrill for me as a classroom teacher as well as an instructor at UNI. Literacy provides so many avenues for expression and change, and kids can benefit from excitement about language.

What advice do you have for prospective/current students to make the most of their time at UNI?
Go to lots of events, study abroad if you can, listen to new ideas and share your thoughts. Figure out how things work, question why that might be and consider implications for the future. Talk with people in and outside of your major, get comfortable with the idea that you probably don't know the other person's experience, but you can be successful citizens and learn together. Basically, embrace the idea from anthropology of "making the familiar strange and the strange familiar"... to me, UNI is a good place to grow beyond yourself.