Professional Biography

I joined the engineering faculty at Santa Clara University in 2014. I was lucky enough for my position to change from academic year adjunct to renewable term lecturer beginning in 2015. My faculty role is focused on our first-year students as part of the Introduction to Engineering class and lab, but I also teach community-based design and prototyping courses with engineering students of all academic years and even those outside of the School of Engineering.

In 2017 I became the Director of General Engineering. I oversee and assess the major and minor programs, review and hire faculty and staff, manage the budget, and advise both General Engineering and the undeclared engineering students. One new effort as Director is the creation of digital pathways and badging to facilitate students' journeys through college, connecting curricular and co-/extra-curricular experiences. In 2020, I was promoted to Senior Lecturer; I'm excited to continue to work at Santa Clara and with our amazing students!

Previously, I was an Associate Teaching Professor in the College of Engineering for the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame (08/2008-06/2010). During this period, I taught several courses, the details of which can be located by following the links on the sidebar. My research interests at Notre Dame revolved around teaching pedagogy and curricula. My efforts were towards aiding in teaching developments for the entire department, as well as the field of chemical engineering. My largest contribution was towards the Notre Dame electronic Portfolio project or NDeP (external link). I was the project lead for two years and we made significant gains in creating a pilot project that was implemented with our younger chemical engineering students. In particular, I was, and still am, interested in this project as a learning tool and advising tool for students. I was also the faculty adviser for the student chapter affiliate of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). The website for this group is located here. This group helps students while at their university to become involved with other schools' chemical engineers and chemical engineering programs, as well as gain experience in chemical engineering projects, such as the ChE car, which improve leadership and teamwork skills. A final topic I was involved with was ABET assessment. I was the lead organizer for the data collected for ABET assessment and was involved with modifying our department's needs with ABETs assessment tools and requirements.