Teaching

I come from a long line of educators: my mother, grandmothers, and great-grandmother were all public school teachers and instilled a deep understanding of how teachers can shape the difference we make in this world. I have served in a few different teaching capacities to date - as a graduate teaching assistant, guest lecturer, and peer mentor to other graduate students. I'm excited to discuss new teaching opportunities with you!

George Washington University

At GW, I had the privilege of TA'ing the education school's introductory qualitative research methods course for two semesters. The course helped affirm my love for all things qualitative methods while honing my teaching skills in preparation to become a methodologist. 

• Fall 2023, Spring 2024 Graduate Teaching Assistant for Qualitative Methods, with Prof. Arshad Ali

University of Virginia

UVA first introduced me to teaching at the post-secondary level! During my MPP program, I was fortunate to teach with and learn from multiple great mentors, primarily in the school's leadership curriculum concentration. While most of my teaching experience at UVA took place through courses at the master's level, I also had the opportunity to serve as a course grader for one undergraduate course during my time there. 

• Leadership in the Public Arena – Graduate Teaching Assistant (with Prof. Andrew Pennock) (2021) 

• Corporate Social Responsibility – Course Grader (with Kathryn Babineau) (2021) 

• Psychology for Leadership – Graduate Teaching Assistant (with Prof. Brendan Boler) (2020) 

• Complete Immersive Batten Orientation (CIBO) – Lead Graduate Teaching Assistant (with Prof. Andrew Pennock) (2020) 

Guest Lectures/Presentations

Guest lecturing gave me my first formal opportunities to work with undergraduate students! I love collaborating with undergraduates, and I believe that one of my most important job functions as an aspiring professor with disabilities is to model for disabled undergraduate students that they belong in higher education (I wrote more about this in an Inside Higher Ed piece). I take this role seriously and am excited to work with more undergrads in the future!

New York University

•      Guest Co-Lecturer (master’s). Lecture topic: Navigating disability disclosure in postsecondary transition planning (lecture led by Rachel Elizabeth Traxler) (2024)

•      Guest Co-Lecturer (faculty teaching and learning speaker series). Lecture topic: Complicating disability disclosure for graduate students (lecture led by Rachel Elizabeth Traxler) (2024)

•      Guest Lecturer (undergraduate). Lecture topic: Qualitative research: How do we decide what to study? (2023)

•       Invited Panelist (undergraduate). Panel topic: IDEA symposium (2023)

•      Guest Lecturer (undergraduate). Lecture topic: Who am I? Ethical considerations of researcher positionality? (2022)

George Washington University

•      Guest Lecturer (master’s). Lecture topic: An introduction to quantitative research methods (2024)

•       Guest Lecturer (master’s). Lecture topic: An introduction to mixed methods research

(2023, 2024)

•       Guest Facilitator (doctoral). Class discussion topic: Grounded theory and case studies

(2023)

•       Invited Panelist (doctoral). Panel topic: Advice for approaching the second-year project

(2023)

George Mason University

•      Guest Lecturer (undergraduate). Lecture topic: An introduction to mixed methods research (2024)

University of Virginia

•      Invited Panelist (university-wide). Panel topic: Disability allyship and intersectionality (2021)

Informal Teaching/Mentorship

In addition to my formal teaching roles, I've also taken part in several informal mentoring experiences! I firmly believe that teaching extends beyond formal classrooms alone, and I've loved being able to mentor in some of the following informal capacities:

• A lot of great mentors have sharpened my skills in academic writing over the years. On my more recent publications (see my under review and in progress manuscripts), you may note that I believe in the importance of continuing that tradition by inviting newer doc. students to collaborate with me on various research projects. While newer students' assistance on these projects is extremely valuable for me in terms of the skills they bring as collaborators, my central goal in these collaborations is to help encourage new students and support them toward their own personal and professional endeavors. I cater our working sessions toward newer students' interests whenever possible - from teaching them the fundamentals of APA formatting and the journal submission process, to discussing how they might consider expanding on the work we have collectively done to further their own interests, to advising them on future classes to consider as they develop new research project ideas! 

• Along with working with newer doc. students, a significant portion of my informal mentoring has taken place at the undergraduate level. My guest lecture opportunities at NYU introduced me to some incredible undergraduate students over the past couple years! When I guest lecture, I provide my email and cell phone information for any student who wants to reach out. This has allowed me to stay in contact with several students long after our one-off lecture sessions! From helping undergraduate students locate policy and/or research summer internships to collaborating to identify "first-destination" post-graduate jobs, I love supporting students as they explore and broaden their interests and career goals. I view my role as primarily being there to encourage students along whatever path may be of interest, as well as helping students navigate the logistical details that come along with job and internship searches (from realistic income potential to cost-of-living ration considerations, I'm there to help navigate!).

• Finally, while I consider my consulting practice as mostly seperate from teaching, I am excited about the curriculum development experience I have gained through consulting! Check out the "University of Cincinnati" section on my consulting page to learn more about my recent special education transition curriculum design projects.