I've been working in Student Conduct and Community Standards at UMBC for 16 years, first as Associate Director and then Director for the past 14 years. This is my second non-consecutive term on the Professional Staff Senate, which I find to be a great professional development/leadership development opportunity and would highly recommend. I think of it like SGA for GenXers and Millenials. With so many changes happening on campus, it's a great time to be involved with shared governance! What I love about coming to work at UMBC is the opportunity to continue to challenge myself and grow professionally. There is a "if you dream it, you can do it" atmosphere that fosters innovation. In addition to the more "traditional" task of managing student conduct, our office is innovating two other programs: restorative practices and Green Dot Bystander Training. Since we first started with restorative practices at UMBC, we've held 16 two-day trainings for over 500 staff, faculty, and students and we believe that restorative practices is gaining traction across the campus. In the wake of the Department of Justice investigation and settlement agreement, prevention of power-based personal violence is more important than it has ever been, so we look forward to a similar growth curve for Green Dot.
My Ph.D. is from Iowa State University and my dissertation research was a participatory action research project to deconstruct white racial privilege among white students in my own graduate program, and I continue to be active in a range of social justice issues. One of my side hustles is coordinating the Allies in CWIT practicum for male- and male-identified students in the Center for Women in Technology scholars program. Before graduate school, I worked at Virginia Tech and the University of Massachusett-Amherst.
My partner and I have two kids. The oldest is a 2022 UMBC graduate and will be headed to med school in a couple months. The youngest is a second-year student at UMBC, an alumnus of the Shriver LLC, and active with UMBC club rugby. Fortunately, we have been able to avoid significant conflicts between my work role and his social life. Fingers crossed! With two kids kinda, sorta, not really out of the house, we are preparing to transition to being empty-nesters. We have a family vacation planned for Acadia National Park next month. If we get good sunrise or whale pics, I'll let you know!
