About Me

I am a designer, an educator, a life-long learner, and a feminist. I got my start in design quite “late,” having spent about a decade working in the national security industry, and I am glad to feel as though I have found my path. I plan to spend the next several years working toward a PhD in Human Behavior and Design at Cornell University—like I said, life-long learner. :)

Recently, I have instructed several classes at Syracuse University—including, Architectural Design, Intro to Graphic Design, and a First-Year Seminar course exploring ideas of identity, inclusion, diversity, equity, and access. In 2022, I taught a professional elective of my own design, intermingling three of my passions—architecture, history, and the study of infectious disease. This course, entitled Infectious Architecture: Designing Against Contagion, sits staunchly at the intersection of my pre-architecture experience and my burgeoning focus on architectural history. Though we have finally emerged from the status of full-blown pandemic lock-down, studying human resiliency and innovation in the face of an invisible and deadly threat remains apropos. We will eventually face another pathogen in the, hopefully very distinct, future and we should remain vigilant in creating a greater means survive, and thrive.

My research interests hover around the point in which our visual culture (art, design, architecture) meets experiences of fear. Beyond designing a course surrounding deadly epidemics and architectural advancements, my other recent work investigates women’s encounters with dread in architecture’s liminal spaces and representations thereof.

I completed my Master of Architecture at Syracuse University in 2020, a critical step in launching my career. I am reminded whenever anyone reads my résumé that I have a very unorthodox amalgamation of professional and academic experiences. This experiential menagerie bolsters my ability to work through an array of complex issues and I hope to make substantial contributions to interdisciplinary research as I navigate the academic milieu.

So that background… Several years prior, I earned my bachelor’s degree with a double-major in Biology and Women’s Studies at Syracuse University, and then my first master’s degree in Biohazardous Threat Agents and Emerging Infectious Diseases at Georgetown University. I launched a successful career as an analyst at the National Counterterrorism Center, where I dedicated myself to the incredibly intense mission, at a break-neck pace. My job evaluating the complex nature of terrorist threats nurtured my growing interest in probing the darker nature of the human condition. After several mind-opening years in the public sector, I shifted gears back toward academia in hopes of continuing this exploration with greater creativity.