After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2004 with a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.S. in Forensic Science, I spent a year a Georgia Southern University as a lab technician before starting my doctorate in chemistry at the University of Virginia. As a first year graduate student, I was a Teaching Assistant for the introductory labs and I learned quickly that while I enjoyed chemistry, I was passionate about teaching chemistry. 

I decided to leave the program with a Master's in chemistry in 2006 and thought I would go directly into a high school chemistry teaching position. What I didn't realize was how unprepared I felt to teach, so I moved into the School of Education at UVA and in 2008 received my Master's in secondary science teaching.  I taught high school chemistry for three years and loved it, but a desire for a better understanding teaching and learning led me back to school to obtain a PhD in Science Education at UVA. 

During my dissertation studies, I worked as the head TA for the introductory chemistry laboratory course and alongside the  instructor redesigned the labs from cookbook labs to Project-Based Guided Inquiry. I subsequently developed professional development for the 30+ TAs who taught students in the new curriculum, and my dissertation aimed to understand the impact of the professional development on TAs and their students in the labs. 

I completed my PhD in 2015 and since then have been a faculty member at UVA. I started my faculty career in the chemistry department as an instructor (2015-2017), where I taught the introductory chemistry lab that I had transformed as well as a foundations of chemistry course. I also focused on my scholarly endeavors understanding inquiry-based undergraduate laboratory contexts. 

In 2017 I moved full time into the Center for Teaching Excellence as an Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of STEM Education Initiatives. I developed and implemented a cross-departmental 1-credit pedagogy courses for STEM TAs and started developing a suite of Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL) programming. My scholarship expanded from laboratory contexts to undergraduate STEM courses more broadly and the impact of professional development on instructors and their students.

 I am currently Associate Professor and Senior Associate Director in the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Virginia.