About Me

I am a Senior Lecturer Cornell University's Engineering Communications Program in the College of Engineering. I received my PhD from the University of Maryland's Department of English Language and Literature, where I taught classes in English language linguistics, technical communication on climate science, rhetorical theory, academic writing, and digital studies. My work is rooted in the cross-section of rhetoric and cognitive linguistics, with applications in environmental communication, the cognitive and emotion sciences, technical writing, political discourse, and philanthropic writing. My specific expertise is in figurative language, lexical semantics, and grammatical constructions (CxG) in persuasive discourse. At the national and international level, I am a former board member of the International Cognitive Linguistics Association and current co-chair of the Linguistics, Language, and Writing standing group of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Outside of academia, I have worked as a science communicator, technical writer, and language consultant for government organizations and non-profits across the country. 

Pre-COVID, I spent my time outside of academia acting as the director of Corpus Arts, a community DIY radical leftist queer literacy center in New Mexico that provided access to queer books, zines, live music, and rotating art installations. I still spend time with my best friend and partner playing in a dog-themed synthpunk band; practicing and teaching Chinese martial arts; studying standard Mainland Chinese (普通话); and making zines about vegan Persian cooking, children's stories, and forgotten 80s pop songs.