I have never had a particularly linear career.
I grew up in rural Nebraska and went to Colorado College intending to pursue interests that did not fit neatly into a single box. I graduated with degrees in music and physics, minors in mathematics and Renaissance Studies, and experiences that ranged from touring internationally with the Bowed Piano Ensemble to studying the acoustics of orca pods in the San Juan Islands. At the time, those interests sometimes seemed unrelated. Looking back, I see a consistent curiosity about how things work- whether a mathematical system, a piece of music, a culture, or an organization- and what becomes possible when we make connections across boundaries that are usually kept separate.
Education also became important to me early on. During college, I tutored elementary students in mathematics and reading, coached young musicians at the Colorado Springs Conservatory, and spent my summers teaching children of migrant farmworkers in western Nebraska. After graduation, I joined Teach For America and moved to Rio Grande City, a rural community on the Texas-Mexico border, where I taught eighth-grade mathematics for three years. That experience fundamentally shaped the way I understand education. My students were talented, funny, complicated young people whose opportunities were often constrained by circumstances that had little to do with their potential. I learned that high expectations matter, but so do the systems surrounding students: the opportunities they can see, the relationships they encounter, and the institutions designed to support them.
In 2008, I moved to Southern California to pursue graduate study in musicology at Claremont Graduate University. I continued teaching full time while completing my M.A. and Ph.D.- first middle-school mathematics and then mathematics, physics, and music at a new public high school in West Covina. I was part of a small group of educators who helped build that school as it grew, eventually teaching everything from algebra and physics to International Baccalaureate mathematics while developing the instrumental music program and directing the jazz ensemble. It was an unusual way to become a musicologist, but an extraordinarily useful education in leadership. I learned what it means to build something before all of the structures exist, to work across disciplines, to solve problems with limited resources, and to create culture intentionally rather than assume it will emerge on its own.
Higher education eventually brought together many of those strands. At Laramie County Community College, I taught music history and theory, directed ensembles, and began taking on broader work in curriculum, assessment, and academic governance. At the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, I taught musicology while becoming increasingly involved in faculty development, culturally responsive and inclusive teaching, online and blended learning, and instructional technology. At Muskingum University, I served simultaneously as a faculty member and chair of Art & Design and Music, leading program development and enrollment, accreditation, and donor and community partnerships while continuing to teach and pursue scholarship. Today, I serve as Dean of Arts, Culture, & Society at Arapahoe Community College in Colorado. The scale of the work has changed, but many of the questions that interest me have not: How do we create learning environments in which people can thrive? How do we preserve intellectual depth while adapting to a changing world? How do we connect education more meaningfully with communities and opportunity? How do we use evidence without losing sight of the people represented by it? And how do leaders create conditions in which other people's expertise, creativity, and ideas can flourish?
Those questions also connect my administrative work with my life as a scholar. My research examines music as it moves across borders- between communities, nations, identities, and traditions. Increasingly, I recognize that I am drawn to boundaries in much of my work: between academic disciplines, education and industry, institutions and communities, data and humanity, tradition and innovation. My career has taught me that some of the most interesting work happens at these edges.
After twenty-plus years of moving around the country for education and academic positions, returning to Colorado in 2025 felt like coming home. Outside of work, I spend most of my time with my husband and our two young children– hiking, skiing, listening to or making music, exploring Colorado and the world, and negotiating new adventures.
I grew up in rural Nebraska and went to Colorado College intending to pursue interests that did not fit neatly into a single box. I graduated with degrees in music and physics, minors in mathematics and Renaissance Studies, and experiences that ranged from touring internationally with the Bowed Piano Ensemble to studying the acoustics of orca pods in the San Juan Islands. At the time, those interests sometimes seemed unrelated. Looking back, I see a consistent curiosity about how things work- whether a mathematical system, a piece of music, a culture, or an organization- and what becomes possible when we make connections across boundaries that are usually kept separate.
Education also became important to me early on. During college, I tutored elementary students in mathematics and reading, coached young musicians at the Colorado Springs Conservatory, and spent my summers teaching children of migrant farmworkers in western Nebraska. After graduation, I joined Teach For America and moved to Rio Grande City, a rural community on the Texas-Mexico border, where I taught eighth-grade mathematics for three years. That experience fundamentally shaped the way I understand education. My students were talented, funny, complicated young people whose opportunities were often constrained by circumstances that had little to do with their potential. I learned that high expectations matter, but so do the systems surrounding students: the opportunities they can see, the relationships they encounter, and the institutions designed to support them.
In 2008, I moved to Southern California to pursue graduate study in musicology at Claremont Graduate University. I continued teaching full time while completing my M.A. and Ph.D.- first middle-school mathematics and then mathematics, physics, and music at a new public high school in West Covina. I was part of a small group of educators who helped build that school as it grew, eventually teaching everything from algebra and physics to International Baccalaureate mathematics while developing the instrumental music program and directing the jazz ensemble. It was an unusual way to become a musicologist, but an extraordinarily useful education in leadership. I learned what it means to build something before all of the structures exist, to work across disciplines, to solve problems with limited resources, and to create culture intentionally rather than assume it will emerge on its own.
Higher education eventually brought together many of those strands. At Laramie County Community College, I taught music history and theory, directed ensembles, and began taking on broader work in curriculum, assessment, and academic governance. At the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, I taught musicology while becoming increasingly involved in faculty development, culturally responsive and inclusive teaching, online and blended learning, and instructional technology. At Muskingum University, I served simultaneously as a faculty member and chair of Art & Design and Music, leading program development and enrollment, accreditation, and donor and community partnerships while continuing to teach and pursue scholarship. Today, I serve as Dean of Arts, Culture, & Society at Arapahoe Community College in Colorado. The scale of the work has changed, but many of the questions that interest me have not: How do we create learning environments in which people can thrive? How do we preserve intellectual depth while adapting to a changing world? How do we connect education more meaningfully with communities and opportunity? How do we use evidence without losing sight of the people represented by it? And how do leaders create conditions in which other people's expertise, creativity, and ideas can flourish?
Those questions also connect my administrative work with my life as a scholar. My research examines music as it moves across borders- between communities, nations, identities, and traditions. Increasingly, I recognize that I am drawn to boundaries in much of my work: between academic disciplines, education and industry, institutions and communities, data and humanity, tradition and innovation. My career has taught me that some of the most interesting work happens at these edges.
After twenty-plus years of moving around the country for education and academic positions, returning to Colorado in 2025 felt like coming home. Outside of work, I spend most of my time with my husband and our two young children– hiking, skiing, listening to or making music, exploring Colorado and the world, and negotiating new adventures.
