COURSES
Academic Teaching Experience
Courses Taught:
Infancy Through Childhood
Adolescence Through Young Adulthood
Developmental Psychology: Lifespan Development
Community Psychology
Environmental & Health Psychology
Applied Developmental Psychology (Director of Internship Program)
Developmental Psychology (Graduate Seminar)
Applied Developmental and Community Practicum (Graduate Seminar)
Community-Based Research (Graduate Seminar)
Seminar in Research Problems (Graduate Seminar)
Organizational & Community Learning (Graduate Seminar)
Program Evaluation (Graduate Seminar)
Future Courses:
Race and Identity in Youth Development: How do race/ethnicity, concepts of diversity and identity influence the lives of children and youth within their everyday settings (specifically school)? In this course, we will employ theory, research, and applied practice to deconstruct and challenge stereotypes surrounding educational achievement, as well as investigate key facilitators (individual, interpersonal, and structural) of belonging and educational outcomes. Class topics will include socialization surrounding learning (i.e., by class, race, gender, and sexual orientation), inequities in access to educational resources, as well as approaches to learning (i.e., instruction, co-learning models, community schools, Black Lives Matter Freedom Schools, and restorative justice programming). In this course, students will gain an understanding of how environment, culture, and interpersonal processes can shape learning, as well as implications for social policy and educational practice.
Youth Sociopolitical Development: What role does civic identity play in adolescent development? How does civic engagement differ based on adolescents’ social locations and intersecting systems of power? Sociopolitical Development (SPD) encompasses the iterative process by which youth name, identify, and navigate systems of oppression. This course will present key theories and research surrounding civic identity and engagement within the context of positive youth development. In particular, students will explore cognitive, emotional, and social developmental processes of SPD, as well as the roles that community, social belonging, activism, and collective resistance play in adolescent development. Assignments will consist of personal explorations surrounding students’ own identity formation, as well as active engagement with community-based organizations.
History of Race within Psychology: This course will explore how interpretations of the concepts of race and culture within the field of psychology have changed over time by examining the history of psychology and empirical research approaches in the context of social hierarchies, and their impact on modern day issues surrounding race politics (i.e., social policy, and public discourse). We will also examine the emergence of race and cultural theory in shaping transformative paradigms within the field. Students will leave this course with a framework for integrating the concepts of race and culture into their future scholarship.
Research Methods to Advance Equity: Research within the social sciences has often been employed to perpetuate racial, socioeconomic, gendered, and other group-based inequities and hierarchies. This course puts forth the claim that, despite this history, research can be repurposed as a way to address, challenge, and remediate racial bias. In addition, the course provides a perspective and resources for using different research methods as vehicles to advance equity and disrupt deficit-focused narratives. Lessons focus on considerations and implications in measurement, an introduction to open science, and participatory approaches surrounding community-based and qualitative research.
Teaching
As an educator, I believe students are active agents in their own education. My teaching integrates developmental systems theory, emphasizing that development occurs through dynamic and diverse person-context interactions.
Furthermore, I uphold Freirean participatory pedagogies that recognize and honor the knowledge that students bring to their learning experiences. My prime objective is to embolden students to link their current lived experiences to course material while cultivating their identities as critical researchers.
I foster this self-exploration through intentional, inclusive, and supportive learning communities. Students collaborate with one another through small group activities and take on active roles throughout my courses, which are designed to promote experiential participatory learning by providing students with in-the-field research experience, unique service-learning opportunities, and practice in critical pedagogy and self-reflection.
Course activities have included conducting community-based needs assessments for housing insecure populations, providing design recommendations for a childcare center for children with unique developmental needs, implementing evidence-based mentoring services and motivational interviewing for middle school students, as well as conducting a photovoice project on the needs of graduate students during the pandemic.
Students have shared their class products in practitioner outlets (The Community Psychologist), academic conferences (Community Research Action in the West and Southeast Ecological Community Psychology Conference), local city council, and with community-based partners.
Mentoring
I actively search for opportunities to enhance my graduate students’ professional development and consciously involved them in my community-based research projects and academic publishing. I intentionally scaffold research projects to build up graduate students’ skill sets and comfort with research methods, running a research team, mentoring undergraduates, intentional relationship building with community partners, and navigating academic environments.
My research teams are also intentionally constructed to provide undergraduate students with high impact learning experiences in applied research. Each team meets independently to execute weekly research activities and consists of a group of undergraduate students, a community member, and a graduate student supervisor. These larger collective research teams meet bi-monthly to explore critical social justice texts that reflect the lived experiences of team members (i.e. first-generation, Latinx scholars, etc.), highlight ethical considerations within community-based work, explore new methodologies, and brainstorm the utilization of research to promote health equity.
