Hello

Helping students explore the world through developing exceptional writing and analysis skills has been the driving force behind all of my career and educational choices. For the past seven years, I have taught high school English, ranging from entry freshman programs to Advanced Placement Language and Literature courses. Currently, I am an adjunct assistant professor in the English, Education, and Media and Communications departments at Shenandoah University.

 

In 2011, I graduated from University of Mary Washington with a BA in English and immediately went on to earn my MA in Children’s Literature from Hollins University. My graduate thesis was “Storytelling: The Tradition, the Telling, and the Showing,” creatively and critically exploring the history, fundamentals, and application of storytelling.

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In Fall 2023, I began my journey at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia to complete the Individualized Interdisciplinary PhD program. My proposal for admittance was titled, "Empathetic Educational Environments: Advancing Cultural Sensitivity of Trauma Through Storytelling in the Secondary-level English Classroom," which detailed coursework in the following departments: English, Education, Human Development, and Sociology. Though it's a very specialized focus of research, I hope my expertise can be a bit of an umbrella, covering the many facets of trauma and the power of story.

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