Research Areas

I am seeking to explore 1) which resources students use 2) how useful they perceive these resources to be 3) how those outcomes vary across demographic factors and 4) how resource use impacts students' academic achievement. 

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I have published two papers so far on this subject, which you can find linked here and here.

In collaboration with Drs. Elisabeth Schussler and Josh Rosenberg, I am part of a team that seeks to understand 1) how student anxiety in Introductory Biology changes over time, 2) how levels of anxiety impact students' perceptions of their instructor, and 3) what characteristics of instructor behavior can ameliorate anxiety. 

Working with a team of collaborators, we reviewed the geographic and curricular extent of informal science centers in our backyard, the southeastern Appalachians. Our paper provides an overview of the current state of informal education and provides recommendations for future policy in the region.

When you think about 'success' in higher education, what do you think about? Where do those ideas come from, and do they capture the reality of students' goals? I have previous argued that current definitions of success uphold cultural hegemony, and found that prevailing definitions do not match those of life science graduate students. I've recently published work that identifies solutions for how to address systemic biases related to definitions of success in higher education.

I have previous worked with Dr. Mali Hubert to explore Introductory Biology students' perceptions of anthropogenic disturbances, like wildfires and urbanization.

You can check out this work here

Interested in seeing your project on this list? I am always interested in collaboration opportunities, so please reach out!