ABOUT

I am an art historian, plant humanist, and curator based in Vermont. My interdisciplinary research focuses on artistic engagements with gender, plants, and the environment to deepen understanding of their historical significance and relevance to our present day. I am the recipient of a 2026 Winter Perennial Residency at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Upperville, Virginia to support my research on the nineteenth-century English botanical artist Marianne North and her paintings of the California big trees.

Prior to relocating to the Green Mountain State, I held a post-doctoral fellowship in plant humanities at Dumbarton Oaks, a Harvard University research institute, located in Washington, DC, contributing content to the Plant Humanities Lab and the JSTOR Daily Plant of the Month series. Since 2025, I have continued to work in this field as a reviews editor for the new interdisciplinary journal Plant Perspectives, published by the White Horse Press, UK.

My curatorial work often involves collaborating with colleagues, students, and/or community members to empower everyone to co-create exhibition content together. I believe in the power of art as a tool for healing and in art's capacity to help people share their experiences and nurture a sense of belonging and community. This belief animates my participation in the Burlington-based Howard Center Arts Collective as a member of the community since 2022 and its Advisory Committee since 2026. And, as a participant in Vermont Folklife's Vermont Community Fellows Program, I am launching an oral history project with the Arts Collective to assess our community's needs and collaboratively develop a future visioning project.

My background in museums includes diverse positions at the University of Vermont’s Fleming Museum of Art, the University of Kansas’s Spencer Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. Most recently, I wrote about women artists and gender inequities in the art world for a new book introducing the Christian Levett Collection at FAMM (Female Artists of the Mougins Museum) (2025). I also co-edited and contributed essays to the post-exhibition catalogue Perspectives on a Legacy Collection: Sallie Casey Thayer’s Gift to the University of Kansas (2020).