Currently, I am a faculty member in the College of Liberal Arts at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. I serve in a small department of six faculty dedicated to undergraduate teaching and research. I teach four courses per semester, conduct my own research, guide independent student research, and am the campus coordinator for The Harrisburg Internship Semester program for PASSHE universities. In Summer 2016, I served as the faculty mentor for a summer-funded, student research project, conducting a content analysis of media coverage of the 2016 presidential primary. Currently, I am the faculty mentor for an honor’s thesis, examining the role of religiosity on support for the federal government’s actions to combat terrorism. I am in the beginning stages of starting a new student-integrated teaching and research agenda that will incorporate an examination of trust in government and civic engagement pedagogy, using the Harry Potter series.

I often find myself in service roles connected to curriculum and assessment. I am an elected member of the Liberal Arts Curriculum Committee. I serve on the Liberal Arts Seminar Committee, reviewing and revitalizing seminars to attract undeclared students to the liberal arts, and I also serve on a variety of committees in the department, including curriculum, assessment, and evaluation.

I completed my PhD in the Department of Political Science at The Ohio State University. My dissertation research examined gender, race, and political psychology with a focus on the structure of personal value systems in effective mass-elite political communication. I independently created and taught two courses while at OSU. I served as the coordinator of the department’s Political Psychology Dissertation Workshop and led the student representatives of the Graduate Studies Committee.

Prior to my move to Columbus, I completed a Masters of Public Policy at The George Washington University and utilized these skills as a legislative analyst for the Service Employees International Union in Washington, DC from 2007 to 2009. During my graduate studies in DC, I also had the opportunity to intern for Congresswoman Diana DeGette (CO-1) and for AARP.

In 2005, I completed my bachelor of arts degree in political science from Elizabethtown College. It is a short distance from Hershey, PA where I grew up and still visit my family today.