I am a Teaching Assistant Professor of Journalism & Communication at Lehigh University in the College of Arts and Sciences.
I teach data journalism, writing, editing, visual communication, media ethics and law, as well as a senior seminar on covering vulnerable populations.
The classroom is my happy place and, as a first-generation college student, I strive to make my classes sensitive, inclusive spaces for each student.
I hold the Master Journalism Educator distinction from the Journalism Education Association.
I am thrilled to serve as a first-year advisor at Lehigh to provide a quality advising experience to our students and facilitate a more streamlined experience for both students and faculty.
I have been recognized with the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program (ECP) Award for an online graduate course I developed, Teaching Journalism. The ECP recognizes faculty and course designers from schools, colleges, and universities around the world who develop engaging and innovative courses that represent the very best in technology and learning.
Previous experience
In 2021 I earned the Board of Visitors Teaching Award from The University of Alabama, where I taught for 13 years. Given annually, this honor recognizes a faculty member who is innovative and effective in teaching a wide range of courses, prioritizes diversity in teaching, and demonstrates a commitment to student engagement and mentorship beyond the classroom. While there, I was also honored to receive the Kappa Tau Alpha National Honor society Commitment to Teaching award, voted on by students.
I have a passion for helping the general public understand how we do journalism. To that end, I lobbied UA to get the Introduction to Journalism and Social Media (JCM 200) class recognized as a humanities course for the UA general curriculum. I was named a UA Innovation Scholar-in-Residence to take that class to a new level through my Follow my Lede project. I served as an Innovation Mentor to other faculty who want to improve online technology.
I was proud to transform the Teaching Multimedia Journalism class into a Service Learning class after being accepted as a faculty fellow in Service Learning through the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility. Both graduate and undergraduate students in the class go into local schools to help teach student media.
Beyond those classes, I supervised six labs and taught the Editing and Multimedia Production class for UA in the WVUA 23 newsroom, a professional commercial TV station. I also worked with Alabama Public Radio with my classes as well.
I also taught for several years at University of South Carolina Upstate, where I taught news and features writing classes.
I have worked in marketing, public relations and social media management for nonprofits, as well as agencies.