University of Nebraska-Lincoln

I have a passion for helping people become better than they were yesterday. This passion is fueled by immense gratitude toward those who have done the same for me. I often find myself in the right place at the right time, but you’ll also find me willing and ready to step up to whatever challenge is there. As a wife, mom, dairy farm kid, teacher, and researcher, I’m driven by a desire to aid young adults in their route to becoming educators, so they inspire future generations to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. Prior to joining the ALEC at UNL, I completed my Ph.D. at Oregon State University in Education with an Agricultural Education option and taught for two years at the University of Minnesota. Before that, I harnessed my strengths of learner, belief, positivity, responsibility, and individualization as a high school agriculture teacher. During my five years as an agriculture teacher and FFA advisor, I worked to cultivate community relationships to aid in the development of students at all levels. I believe learning happens through experience and challenge, usually when we have the opportunity to fail first. I research #teachermobility, #newness, and the #teachingcareer. I study how teachers #learn, and work to #elevate the voices of those doing wonderfully hard work in classrooms every single day. I want to know: 👉 What if we supported and accommodated newness in ways that let teachers get good at teaching instead of drowned by education? 👉 What if we celebrated and rewarded experience in ways that kept teachers in the classroom and expanded their autonomy? 👉 What if we used what we found in support and celebration to transform systems for more general resilience?