I was trained as an experimental particle physicists working to understand the basic building blocks of nature.
Most recently, I studied neutrino oscillation and was a member of the NOvA collaboration.
NOvA is an experiment which sends a beam of neutrinos from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in the western Chicago suburbs to northern Minnesota. I am also interested in physics education research and analysis of large datasets.
I am a Midwest transplant, raised in Corvallis, Oregon.
Growing up, I was an avid Girl Scout and loved hiking and camping.
I did my undergraduate work at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.
There, I majored in math and physics and played the viola in the symphony orchestra.
I moved to the Midwest for graduate school and I completed my doctoral dissertation at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
My doctoral work involved studying the elusive top quark using the CDF Run II detector located at Fermilab.
After a brief stint as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Redlands in the Los Angeles suburbs, I moved back to Illinois for a postdoctoral appointment at Argonne National lab.
At Argonne, I studied neutrino oscillation and worked on the MINOS and NOvA experiments.
In 2012, I was thrilled to move back to a place where I can see forests and natural beauty on a daily basis and I have been teaching at Winona State ever since.
I am a passionate educator, who believes in implementing research vetted teaching methods and active learning strategies in my classroom.
I also enjoy participating in outreach activities such as the science fair.
My hobbies include knitting, hiking and camping, and spending time with my family.
