UW-La Crosse
Teaching Professor
Chemistry and Biochemistry
I am in my 11th year of teaching General Chemistry at UWL, which I started immediately upon defending my Ph.D. at UW-Madison. I’ve lived in Wisconsin for most of my life, aside from a 5-year stint in Oregon where I finished high school and got my Bachelor’s Degree from University of Oregon (Go Ducks!). Likes: LEARNING, Tik Tok, sweatshirt weather, coffee that’s mostly cream and sugar, Taco Bell, interesting salads, reading trashy chick lit, spending time with my 2 girls (especially shopping at Target), going on bike rides with my fam, and binge-watching comedy TV with my partner. Dislikes: heat, traffic, long meetings, heat, bugs, snakes, and misinformation. I’m so excited to learn with the WTFS cohort and will never stop giggling about the acronym.
TEACHING AND LEARNING PHILOSOPHY
My teaching philosophy is rooted in equity, growth mindset, and accessibility. I always strive to remind students to find connections to the material, believe in their abilities, and grow as critical thinkers. I work hard to build meaningful relationships with students and offer opportunities for them to connect with each other. I believe that a student’s ability to succeed is only limited by factors that affect their well-being (mental health, family challenges, financial issues, etc) and never by their innate ability. I also believe it is fundamentally my job to teach students as whole humans and to empower their learning through my enthusiasm, support, compassion, knowledge of connections between course material and their everyday lives, and (most importantly) trust in them.
