My Ed.D. work focused on how learning programs function in practice, including adult learning theory, strategic planning, program analysis, and academic leadership. My dissertation was site-specific action research conducted within a working institution, examining how competency-based frameworks and technology-mediated instruction could support a more contemporary studio art curriculum.

I’ve carried that work into program design and administrative contexts, developing curriculum structures, refining approval processes, and building program models that account for delivery, staffing, and long-term sustainability.

I’m often drawn to the structural problems that sit underneath more visible challenges, where improving clarity at the systems level leads to more effective and lasting solutions.

I’ve been teaching online since 2008, which means I started building asynchronous courses before most institutions had clear models for how they worked. Much of that experience came from figuring out what holds up when students are moving through a course independently.

Teaching studio art online made those dynamics especially visible. Without physical presence, the structure of a course has to carry more of the experience, which changed how I think about clarity, pacing, and how students engage with material over time.

My doctoral research focused in part on technology integration and LMS functionality, and in early 2025 I completed a five-course certificate in online learning and instructional design at Duke University to stay current with evolving models and tools. That work built on what I had already been doing in practice while helping me refine and update my approach.

Across contexts, I design learning experiences that are clear and navigable without being over-engineered, with enough openness to support the range of people moving through them.

I’ve also presented this work in conference settings, primarily on course and curriculum design, including blended learning, non-traditional assessment, and the intentional instruction of creativity and critical thinking.

Since 2010, I’ve worked with faculty across institutions as a coach, facilitator, and committee lead, helping individuals think through their teaching, assessment, and course design in practical, applied ways. Over time, I’ve come to see those conversations as part of a larger organizational picture. My doctoral coursework included change management and strategic planning, which shaped how I think about the relationship between individual practice and broader systems.

I tend to approach this work by listening for those patterns while staying focused on the individual in front of me. A trauma-informed framework, which I deepened through a certificate program at Columbia College in 2024, shapes how I enter those conversations, with attention to context, an awareness of what people might not be saying directly, and a focus on making the work feel navigable rather than evaluative.

In practice, this has meant working one-on-one with faculty, leading workshops, and contributing to initiatives like adjunct onboarding and departmental planning.

An MFA is a research degree in visual thinking. It trains you to work through complex ideas spatially, to understand how form shapes meaning, and to make deliberate decisions about how something is experienced before it's ever read.

That background informs how I curate and present information in a learning context, from curriculum maps to onboarding materials to process documentation. My work is also shaped by years of teaching color theory, where small shifts in contrast, hierarchy, and emphasis can significantly change how something is perceived and understood.

That attention to visual detail tends to operate quietly in finished work, but it has a real effect on how confidently people move through it. A well-designed learning artifact doesn't just communicate information. It reduces barrier, signals what matters, and makes the experience of learning feel considered rather than accidental.