Students as researchers.

At the core of my teaching philosophy is my desire to combat epistemic injustice. In the classroom, this means that the processes that create knowledge often exclude and silence those from marginalized backgrounds. To challenge this injustice, my classes center the voices of those from underrepresented backgrounds and explore different ways people have answered psychological questions inside and outside of academia.

I incorporate lived experience and praxis in my classes by inviting guest speakers who can talk about psychology as a means to improving communities. To understand how psychological concerns and questions are explored in non-academic spaces, my students and I go on class trips to venues such as the Denver Art Museum, the Arvada Center for the Arts, and the Women’s Bean Project.

My classes emphasize that psychological research is not just an activity for bookworms, but that research techniques can be practical tools for supporting our community. Recently, my classes have completed two projects benefiting the community: a systematic literature review project to support The Blue Bench in my research methods class, and qualitative interviews to create a cookbook fundraiser project to support student programming at Regis University.

Courses taught

Undergraduate

• General Psychology
• Forensic Psychology
• Community Psychology
• Research Methods and Behavioral Statistics
• Small Group Behavior
• Applied Human Development
• SEEK Seminar (First Year Experience)
• Institutional Treatment of the Offender

Graduate

• Certificate in College Teaching Seminar
• Graduate Research & Design