Teaching

My teaching centers on design as a cultural, environmental, and ethical practice grounded in place, responsibility, and reciprocal relationships. As a Clinical Assistant Professor in the ASU School of Design, with a joint appointment in Indigenous Placekeeping and Design and Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, and Environmental Design, I guide students to engage Indigenous knowledge systems, community-led design, and resource-aware practices that respond to social, climatic, and material realities.

Across studios and seminars, students integrate research, critical reflection, and applied design. Coursework addresses environmental systems, Indigenous architecture and planning, ethical research practices, and construction under constraint. Students work across scales and disciplines, develop positional awareness, and produce design responses that align cultural values, ecological limits, and community priorities. My goal is to prepare students to practice responsibly in complex contexts and support sustainable futures rooted in care, accountability, and place.

DSC 519 Design Data Collection Analysis Research and Representation

Semester: Fall

Offered: 2026, 2025

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course examines theories and practices in Indigenous design and studies through critically engaged, place-based inquiry. Grounded in ethics for Indigenous sovereignty and knowledge systems, the course recenters ethical research methods to land, community, and culturally appropriate approaches. The ASU Land Acknowledgment is engaged not as a symbolic statement, but as an actionable framework that informs course pedagogy, research conduct, and design responsibility. Drawing on guest speakers, selected readings, and case studies from Indigenous-led projects and methodologies. Emphasis is placed on Indigenous research methods, cultural protocols, and community-informed processes as foundations for analysis, reflection, and practice. Students are guided to understand how Placekeeping, Placemaking, and Placeknowing are expressed through design, spatial relation, and material dimensions across diverse environments. As a transdisciplinary course, it integrates perspectives from architecture, community planning, sustainability, research methodology, construction, Native governance, and data justice. Students develop an ethically grounded understanding of Indigenous design and development, with attention to the historical, cultural, environmental, and social contexts that shape decision-making. Through this approach, the course prepares students to engage responsibly, contribute respectfully, and foster reciprocal relationships with Indigenous communities. 

Syllabus click here (Fall 2026 Syllabus will be posted shortly)

CON 494 | CON 598 | DSC 494 | DSC 523 – Resource Driven Construction & Design

Semester: Spring

Offered: 2026

COURSE DESCRIPTION  

This course explores accessible approaches to resilient architectural design and construction, with a focus on resource-constrained communities. Students will study the built or community environments of Indigenous communities, considering the persistent barriers to construction and development they face and the resilience embedded in traditional practices. The course focuses on regional and locally sourced materials, traditional stewardship, and cultivation practices. Students will explore sustainable applications, efficient construction methods, and the resurgence of place-based building traditions through placekeeping. The course highlights culturally relevant, sustainable, and scalable solutions that address infrastructure challenges while honoring Indigenous knowledge and architectural resilience.

Syllabus click here 

EDS 402 Environmental Design Synthesis II 

Semester: Spring

Offered: 2026

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is the second part of a two-semester sequence following ED2 401: Environmental Design Synthesis 1. It builds upon the research inquiries, questions, and design challenges introduced during the first semester. Students will further develop and advance their initial design project through a comprehensive synthesis process that demonstrates their research integration, design framework, and critique. Additionally, students will explore constructive, solution-oriented strategies that address their design research topics. The findings will be communicated through written analyses and visual representations.  

Syllabus click here