Where did you live/work before coming to Western?
I lived in a place called City Heights / Normal Heights in San Diego, CA. I worked as a staff member at UC San Diego for their First Year Experience and Transfer Year Experience programs.
What is your area of specialty?
There are lots of things I like to talk about with students, including: first-year student transitions, transfer student transitions, first-generation student transitions, creative writing practice, poetry, fiction, speculative fiction, humor writing, standup comedy, submitting work for publication, graduate school preparation, and graduate school survival. I also love talking with other teachers about their work and pedagogical approaches; I find I learn a lot about teaching that way.
What do you like so far about being at Western?
I find the student body to be very open-minded, compassionate with their peers, and willing to push their creativity. I’ve also found my colleagues to be wonderful, as teachers, writers, leaders and people.
What stirs joy within you outside of your work?
My two young daughters drawing tattoos on me with markers (so long as it’s not on my face). Creative collaboration. NBA banter.
What is your secret “superpower”? Tell us something that others may not know about you.
I have a pretty poor memory, generally-speaking, but I find my memory for people’s favorite music and snacks to be pretty decent. For example, I remember my sister’s high school boyfriend loved to eat water chestnuts. I think he told me that about 27 years ago.
