General Information
Biography
I have been an educator for 17 years serving as a classroom teacher, literacy interventionist, new teacher mentor and university instructor. I received my doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2020 and now serve as an assistant professor of literacy in the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences. In this role, I teach both undergraduate and graduate literacy courses and serve as the Literacy Masters program chair.
Teaching Interests
Spending a significant amount of time in schools in my current role, I recognize the need to prepare teachers to meet the diverse needs of the learners that exist in today’s classrooms. In my undergraduate literacy courses, I include authentic opportunities for teacher candidates to assess and analyze various literacy assessments using in local area schools. This prepares candidates to plan developmentally appropriate instruction for individual or groups of learners in elementary classrooms.I strongly believe that strong foundational skills are crucial in developing skilled readers. In both the undergraduate and graduate literacy courses I teach, meaningful opportunities to build the bridge between theory and practice are created to assist teachers in implementing high impact instructional practice to build phonemic awareness, decoding skills and sight word recognition. I also have a strong passion in educating both future and current educators on how to integrate high-quality multicultural literature that connects to the diverse perspectives of the students they serve in their school community. Students need to feel valued in the school community and one way that teachers can do that is by integrating literature that creates space for students to explore their own cultural identities and learn about perspectives that might differ from their own.
Research Interests
A strong research interest of mine is centered around teacher’s selection and use of multicultural literature in the elementary classroom. I continue to examine teacher's selection process and purpose for the use of multicultural literature in the primary classroom.I also aim to examine teacher candidates’ perception of classroom readiness. My research looks to gain insight into what factors positively contribute to teacher candidate’s self-efficacy.With a passion centered around the use of effective instructional practices used in in-person, online and hybrid environments, I aim to discover and share high impact practice with K-16 educators.
Service Summary
I serve on various departmental committees such as the Graduate Program and Graduate Appeals, Building Relevant, Integrated, Developmentally Guided Experiences for Students (BRIDGES) committee, AAQEP accreditation committee and chair the literacy graduate program committee.I have had the opportunity to represent UNO on the MOEC Early Literacy Group. This group is comprised of literacy leaders across the metropolitan area whose work center around professional learning opportunities for developing and enhancing literacy instruction in K-2 classrooms.I am also a member of the Nebraska English Language Arts (ELA) Revisions Writing Team. This team met to revise the 2014 ELA Nebraska standards, enhance the organization of the new 2021 standards, and consider the recommendations made by local and national partners to ensure all students across Nebraska have access to high quality literacy instruction.