I am a leadership educator and scholar focused on building learning environments for all learners to thrive and shine.
This website offers insights into my values in education, equity, and leadership learning through my teaching, research, and service.
- Purpose: Includes my Professional Statement, Reflection on Values, and CV
- Philosophies: Includes my philosophies and reflection statements on research, service, and teaching & learning.
- Pedagogies: Includes an overview of my teaching through a review of my course design and development, curriculum development, and student evaluations and outcomes.
- Programs: Includes a review of my service through my efforts in program development and student outcomes within the CWC Leadership Scholars and the PLP leadership minor programs including strategic planning, recruitment, student support, alumni outreach and engagement, and fundraising. This section also contains end-of-year reports for both programs and my annual reviews.
- Practice: Includes content on my service through professional development efforts and engagement within the DU community, academy, and beyond.
- Publications: Includes a description of integrated research projects and an overview of publications.
- People: Includes letters from students, faculty, colleagues, and research collaborators on their experiences working with me as a teacher, mentor, peer, and/or researcher.
Professional Statement
Or a Reflection on Dandelions...
A dandelion is considered a nuisance by most; a weed to be removed from a beautiful, perfect lawn. I see the humble dandelion differently. This prolific plant is persistent, gregarious, and unabashedly courageous to take up space where it is unwanted and share its seeds across space and time. Dandelions are sunny yellow and smiling in bloom and fluffy white proliferators of imagination and possibility as they end their lives; purposeful throughout in carrying on the legacy and ubiquity of this simple flower in the world.
I think about my role as a leadership educator when I see a dandelion. Firstly, because it is connected to my first memory of seeing myself as a leader. I was eight years old in second grade and my three best friends and I decided to form a club – after a brief brainstorming session we determined we would be the dandelion club! We picked dandelions that were scattered across our elementary school playground and then decorated our favorite tree – a pine standing tall at the border from our recess space to a broad expanse of cornfield. After beautifying our clubhouse, we discussed our roles – and (I’m assured by still best friend, Adam) I excitedly took the role of “president”. I do not recall how or why I wanted to be the president of this unassuming childhood creation – I just knew I wanted to lead.
Fast forward 30+ years and as I reflect on that memory, I see all the ways the simple dandelion has arisen to teach me beautiful lessons about leadership. Contrary to my eight-year-old vision, I’ve realized that leadership is not a role to be achieved, but more like the dandelion – a collective network of players who all have roles to play to continue the legacy of our work. I consider how insistent the dandelion is – and how doing leadership work that centers social justice and equity means we must be persistent in our efforts and resistant to external actors attempting to extinguish our fire. I see how the fluffy, white seeds created at the end of a dandelion's life cycle are analogous to older generations of leaders sharing their knowledge and experiences with a crop of leaders – ready to grow and expand on our collective efforts towards positive change. I envision the childhood rite of passage to make a wish as we blow dandelion seeds into the wind as a symbol for leadership action: we must pick a fuzzy white dandelion and with quick, short breaths engender the release seeds of critical hope and impossible dreams of what we can create to lead the world towards a brighter future.
I think about my role as a leadership educator when I see a dandelion. Firstly, because it is connected to my first memory of seeing myself as a leader. I was eight years old in second grade and my three best friends and I decided to form a club – after a brief brainstorming session we determined we would be the dandelion club! We picked dandelions that were scattered across our elementary school playground and then decorated our favorite tree – a pine standing tall at the border from our recess space to a broad expanse of cornfield. After beautifying our clubhouse, we discussed our roles – and (I’m assured by still best friend, Adam) I excitedly took the role of “president”. I do not recall how or why I wanted to be the president of this unassuming childhood creation – I just knew I wanted to lead.
Fast forward 30+ years and as I reflect on that memory, I see all the ways the simple dandelion has arisen to teach me beautiful lessons about leadership. Contrary to my eight-year-old vision, I’ve realized that leadership is not a role to be achieved, but more like the dandelion – a collective network of players who all have roles to play to continue the legacy of our work. I consider how insistent the dandelion is – and how doing leadership work that centers social justice and equity means we must be persistent in our efforts and resistant to external actors attempting to extinguish our fire. I see how the fluffy, white seeds created at the end of a dandelion's life cycle are analogous to older generations of leaders sharing their knowledge and experiences with a crop of leaders – ready to grow and expand on our collective efforts towards positive change. I envision the childhood rite of passage to make a wish as we blow dandelion seeds into the wind as a symbol for leadership action: we must pick a fuzzy white dandelion and with quick, short breaths engender the release seeds of critical hope and impossible dreams of what we can create to lead the world towards a brighter future.
Thank you for taking the time to explore and examine my dandelion-filled website that offers insights and evidence for my work in teaching, service, and research. In reflection of the past five years as a teaching assistant professor and faculty director at the University of Denver, I’ve relished the opportunities to co-build a budding program in the CWC Leadership Scholars, collaborate, co-create, and employ a more justice and equity-oriented vision in the leadership studies programs, and learn to navigate the vagaries of uncertainty and change in an upturned world as a teacher, mentor, scholar, colleague, and friend. You will find this website is created to showcase the interrelated web that is my role at the University of Denver - my service integrates with my teaching and subsequently informs my research. Therefore, below I offer some highlights for navigating this website to understand these interwoven experiences in teaching, service, and research.
I believe I have met and exceeded the requirements to qualify for promotion to teaching associate professor because of these opportunities for collective creativity, purposeful growth, and unwavering advocacy within my program-shaping efforts and relationship-building with peers, colleagues, and students. I have built, expanded, and grown into a leadership educator that centers critical feminist pedagogies and philosophies in my teaching, service, and research (see more in the Philosophies section).
My expertise in inclusive, critical leadership pedagogy has informed the expansion and change of curricula in the leadership studies minor. Students have reported significant, positive experiences in their learning and growth through examples of student learning and student evaluations. I've made efforts and grown in my organization and communication through learning from student feedback. Finally, I've shared my work in these pedagogical practices with a leadership learning community. (see more in the Pedagogies section).
My focus on building relationships and championing the program has expanded the connection, appreciation, growth, and fierce loyalty and pride for the CWC Leadership Scholars program for students, staff, and alumnae. Further, I've been a supporter and influencer in the PLP program to take us more towards an inclusive leadership, just framework (see more in the Programs section).
I've made expansive contributions to the DU and Denver communities through service in extraneous but connected communities and in my consistent seeking of professional development to improve my work (see more in the Practice section).
My equity-oriented, critical scholarship has expanded the conversation of leadership learning and development in higher education and connected back to the programs and pedagogy I've integrated (See more in the Publications and Projects section).
Finally, my learning, practice, and presence would be nothing without the relationships I've built with students, colleagues, and collaborators across a multitude of communities. I am deeply grateful for the words of support written by a group of these wonderful humans (see more in the People section).
In the process of creating this website, I’ve been humbled, frustrated, and overwhelmed, as well as proud, uncertain, and excited by the prospects of the next phase in my leadership educator journey.
My expertise in inclusive, critical leadership pedagogy has informed the expansion and change of curricula in the leadership studies minor. Students have reported significant, positive experiences in their learning and growth through examples of student learning and student evaluations. I've made efforts and grown in my organization and communication through learning from student feedback. Finally, I've shared my work in these pedagogical practices with a leadership learning community. (see more in the Pedagogies section).
My focus on building relationships and championing the program has expanded the connection, appreciation, growth, and fierce loyalty and pride for the CWC Leadership Scholars program for students, staff, and alumnae. Further, I've been a supporter and influencer in the PLP program to take us more towards an inclusive leadership, just framework (see more in the Programs section).
I've made expansive contributions to the DU and Denver communities through service in extraneous but connected communities and in my consistent seeking of professional development to improve my work (see more in the Practice section).
My equity-oriented, critical scholarship has expanded the conversation of leadership learning and development in higher education and connected back to the programs and pedagogy I've integrated (See more in the Publications and Projects section).
Finally, my learning, practice, and presence would be nothing without the relationships I've built with students, colleagues, and collaborators across a multitude of communities. I am deeply grateful for the words of support written by a group of these wonderful humans (see more in the People section).
In the process of creating this website, I’ve been humbled, frustrated, and overwhelmed, as well as proud, uncertain, and excited by the prospects of the next phase in my leadership educator journey.
Values Inform Vision
My role as a leadership educator is directly related to my top values: knowledge, relationships, and joy. Each year, I facilitate a values orientation exercise with first-year leadership studies students to identify their top values and how they intend to live them out in their personal and professional lives. Growing a strong understanding of leadership and your own leader identity should always begin with a reflection on values! Take the values exercise here!
