About me

I am a former elementary teacher with more than 16 years of teaching and leadership experience, and a Masters in Educational Leadership and Management (Distinction). I have a strong commitment to feminism and socialist principles, and I believe that education should be free and accessible to everyone, without the barriers that currently exist due to economic, racial, and gender-based inequities. I think knowledge and resources should be shared openly and that we should work together to support each other, especially those who need it most.

I view education as a pathway to social justice and empowerment, and as a researcher, my goal is to contribute to making education more equitable. I think technology is a very powerful and under-explored tool to enhance learning for adults and students alike, and I hope to explore ways emerging technologies like AI and XR, and familiar tools such as online learning environments can break down barriers to teacher learning and education.

I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Connecticut under the mentorship of Dr. Suzanne Wilson, and a Graduate Certificate in Cognitive Science. I am also an NSF-funded fellow in the TRANScend program, which supports educational neuroscience convergence research. My research experience has involved a range of quantitative and qualitative studies in education contexts, including designing online and in-person lab-based experiments, collecting and analyzing behavioral, EEG, and eye tracking data, survey-based research, and qualitative, explanatory case study research.

Skills

    • Experience with survey design, and statistical analysis using a variety of methods and software.

    • Led and collaborated on the design and implementation of in-person and online human subjects research

    • Collected behavioral, EEG, and eye tracking data from over 250 participants for one study

    • Conducted interviews and focus groups with teachers, administrators, and leaders for a variety of qualitative research studies, including policy brief, and academic research

    • Led the creation, development and use of qualitative coding schemes and thematic analysis of interview and open-ended survey response data for academic and corporate projects

  • Experienced and proficient with a variety of software and digital tools including:

    • Qualtrics

    • Gorilla Experiment Builder

    • SR Research Experiment Builder

    • Prolific

    • R

    • Matlab - EEGlab

    • SPSS

    • Atlas.ti

    • NVivo

    • General office software including Excel/Sheets, Word/Docs, Powerpoint/Slides etc

  • Academic and technical writing

    • Editor and peer-reviewed manuscript writing

    • IRB documentation

    • Procedural and informative documentation for team knowledge bases

    Science communication for non-academic audiences

    • Co-authored a book on technology integration, published by Heinemann US

    • Developed a blog and podcast to provide teachers with accessible information about education research, including interviewing prominent academics

    • Wrote guest blog articles for an audience of teachers and administrators

    • Interviewed for several podcasts on the topic of education technology integration

    • 15+ years of elementary and middle school teaching and leadership in the UK, Germany, and Thailand

    • 8 + years designing and delivering professional development workshops, courses, and 1:1 coaching for K-12 and Higher Education teachers and faculty, online and in-person for

    • Experience designing, teaching, and assessing undergraduate large-format 3-credit course, online and in person

    • Certified Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction (CBCI) trainer

    • Certified Cognitive Coach

    • Co-ordinated a large-scale human subjects research project, with a total award of $1.3M, involving an interdisciplinary team

    • Managed and produced several podcasts, including a flagship podcast for a large nonprofit education organization in the US

    • Initiated and led whole-school technology infrastructural development, with a budget of over €100k

    • Led school-level pedagogical technology development and education, including staff coaching, cross-team collaboration, and administrative duties including budgeting and reporting

Education

  • Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut

  • University of Connecticut

    Graduate Certificate in Cognitive Science Program

  • The Open University

    MA.Ed (Leadership and Management)

  • Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh

    PGDE (Primary)

  • Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh

    B.Mus (Honors)