Teaching Assistant Professor of Learning Sciences College of Education What are your research interests?I investigate how people think about their own learning, integrating perspectives from cognition and metacognition, motivation and emotions, and identity and context. I am also passionate about supporting current and future scholars to use responsible and critical research methods.What classes are you teaching at Lehigh?I will be creating a new undergraduate learning sciences program, beginning to teach those courses in the spring.What degrees do you hold and where did you earn them?B.A. (psychology; peace & conflict studies) from Colgate UniversityM.Ed. and Ph.D. (educational psychology) from The University of Texas at AustinI was a postdoctoral scholar with the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, collaborating on a multi-institutional project, developing and researching sixth-grade math instruction with focuses on executive function development and culturally sustaining instruction.What was your previous institution?Colgate UniversityWhat do you enjoy most about teaching?In teaching, I enjoy when students recognize they are creators of knowledge and can see the relevance and application of our content to their lives and communities. Often I strive for this through autonomy-supportive practices, like design thinking and project-based learning, where students are drivers of their own learning.Why did you choose Lehigh?Lehigh’s strong commitment to and prioritization of educational innovation and interdisciplinary research/teaching is what drew me to the university. Being tasked with creating an interdisciplinary curriculum is an incredible opportunity and I was impressed by the ways students, faculty, staff and administration have already shown support for this new initiative. Lehigh’s creation of spaces and resources for changemakers and risk takers ensured this would be a meaningful community to join.
