I started with a picture of me behind a podium, but it didn’t look right; this is me at the Frontiers of Democracy Conference last year in Boston– enjoying a conversation with Civic Studies buddies. I’ll add some of me and my students too– it’s in those conversations that I feel most like myself.

I’ve tried to arrange my life around reading tons of books, without abandoning the world to its own devices too much. I’m not sure I’ve gotten the balance right; it might be a time where many readers and writers need to make sure they act as well. But, interest in how people form and maintain political coalitions and communities sustains my academic work and is what brought me back to graduate school at the University of Maryland in Government & Politics after initially working in Philanthropy and Community Organizing.

I teach political theory, public law, American government and women’s and gender studies classes at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, where I’ve been an assistant professor in Democracy and Justice Studies since 2013.