Program Administration
Because my scholarship often revolves around critiquing and challenging market-driven processes within higher education and advocating for coalitional change, I thrive in administrative positions in which I can work with engaged communities. My administrative philosophy, therefore, echoes my positions on teaching and research; that is, I seek to work with students, faculty, staff, and other stakeholders to build programs that directly address the needs of local learning communities. Writing programs––with complex curricula across multiple courses––require a sincere focus on student writing development over time and in terms of transfer. Furthermore, any Writing Program Administrator (WPA) must develop and sustain collaborations across disciplinary lines so that writing is vertically integrated into student learning beyond the composition classroom. To date, my experience in administrative positions can be divided into three categories: writing programs, undergraduate programs, and digital programs. In these various roles, I aim to support culturally responsive methods like collaboration, flexibility, and critical reflection in curriculum development, staff recruitment, and programmatic assessment.
For example, while at Ohio State, I worked with Beverly J. Moss in the Second-Year Writing Program to supervise approximately 20 uniquely themed sections of our research and writing course. I led the revision of two annual required workshops on teaching second-year writing and teaching writing online to be attentive to linguistic diversity and consider alternative assessment approaches. I also sharpened my administrative experiences as an Associate Director of the Digital Media and Composition Institute (DMAC) for two years as we transitioned to the DMAC 2.0 model. More recently, in my first faculty position at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, I fostered a culture of writing across the campus through my service on the First-Year Composition Taskforce and by coordinating the Professional Writing Certificate. Each of these roles inform my current work as the Director of Writing at A&M-Commerce.
In my current position, I oversee the University’s core curriculum writing courses. The main function of this administrative role includes training and supporting an instructional staff of approximately 25 graduate students and adjuncts. Our unique literacy and rhetoric-focused writing curriculum serves approximately 1,800 A&M-Commerce students as well as students at six Dual Credit partner high schools per academic year. This context, especially as we continue to address the impact of COVID-19 and shifting student demographics, requires me to be an agile administrator who can communicate the goals of our courses to stakeholders on and off campus. Since taking over this role, and in collaboration with another faculty member and three advanced PhD students, I worked to overhaul the program’s shared curriculum and custom born-digital textbook, which launched Fall 2023. In revising the curriculum and textbook, I focused on clarifying our programmatic mission and encouraging student composing skills through original research writing, deeper engagement with information literacy, and ongoing investments in making the classroom assessment process transparent and equitable. Additionally, with the support of a $100,000 interdisciplinary grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, I am working with our Math Department, Enrollment Services, Student Advising, and the Writing Center to reform how our university handles student placement in developmental courses to better align with professional standards as well as expectations of THECB.
In each of my administrative roles, my primary goal is building coalition with instructors and students by creating opportunities for critical feedback and, importantly, collaborative reform that respects the knowledge and expertise each community brings to a program. In sum, when I am in an administrative role, my aim is to work with local populations so that I understand not only what they want from a course, major, or institute but why they want it.
Administrative and Related Experience
Texas A&M University-Commerce (as tenure-track faculty)
Director of Writing, Department of Languages and Literature, 2023–present
Co-Chair, Developmental Education Advisory Committee (CRSM-2023 grant), 2023-present
Member, Core Curriculum Committee (CHSSA representative), 2023-present
Assessor, Core Curriculum Assessment, 2024
Member, The Learning Showcase Planning Committee, 2023-present
Member, The Human Experience Certificate Planning Committee, 2022-present
Chair, Full-time Instructor of Writing Search Committee, 2023-present
Chair, Taskforce for Studying the Impact of Overenrolled Courses on GAT Workload, 2023
Co-Chair, Writing Inquiry Textbook Revision Committee, 2022-2023
Christian Brothers University (as tenure-track faculty)
Coordinator, The Professional Writing Certificate, 2021-2022
Member, Student Success Committee, 2021-2022
Member, First Year Composition Taskforce, 2021-2022
The Ohio State University (as PhD student)
Graduate Administrative Associate, Second Year Writing Program, 2018-2020
Associate Director, Digital Media and Composition Institute (DMAC), 2018 & 2019
Graduate Administrative Associate, Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy Studies, 2017-2018
Graduate Administrative Associate, Digital Media Project, 2016-2017
Chair, Second Year Writing Program Graduate Teaching Associate Award Committee, 2019
Elected Member, English Graduate Program and Policy Committee, 2016-2018
North Carolina State University (as MA student)
Student Member, First Year Writing Program Council, Department of English, 2014-2015
Tutor Coordinator, Summer START Program, 2015