WORK

  • 2024-current Department Head, Fashion Design, Pacific Design Academy
  • 2021-2024 Writing Coach
  • 2016-2021 Deans Distinguished University Fellow (concurrent with PhD studies)
  • 2014-2016 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow in Portuguese (concurrent with MA studies)
  • 2012-2014 Graduate Student Success Coach for online MFA Fashion Design students at the Academy of Art University
  • 2008-2012 First Hand, Portland Opera Costume Shop
  • 2007-2009 Freelance Costume Designer
  • 2005-2007 Seamstress, Victorian Vogue, Santa Barbara
  • 2004-2005 Student worker, UC Santa Cruz Costume Shop

SKILLS

  • sewing: garment construction, pattern drafting, draping, alterations and repairs, knitting, quilting, hand embroidery, lace repair, comfortable working with industrial and domestic machines, basic machine maintenance (sewing machine, serger and coverstitch)
  • design: costume design, knowledge of fashion history, knowledge of textiles, historical and literary research, costume rendering, knowledge of colour theory and design principles
  • other: Adobe Illustrator, WordPress content management, Microsoft Office

EDUCATION

  • Ph.D. in Geography (social science), The Ohio State University (2021)
  • M.A. in Geography (social science), University of Georgia (2016)
  • B.A. in Community Studies, University of California Santa Cruz (2007)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Pacific Design Academy:

  • Intro to Fashion Design
  • Design Fundamentals
  • Collaborative Design Workshop
  • 20th Century Fashion History
  • Line Development
  • Draping 1
  • Draping 2
  • Garment Construction 1
  • Garment Construction 2
  • Garment Construction 3
  • Fashion Flats
  • Illustration 3
  • Evening classes: Pattern drafting and garment construction

Workshops for creatives:

  • Spy Life: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
  • Living with Bears: Time Management for Creatives
  • Feast Mode: Embracing Ritual in Creative Practice
  • The Doldrums: Navigating the Mid-Project Slog
  • Fin: Why it’s Hard to Finish Projects (and what to do about it!)
  • Burn After Writing: a Ritual for Anxious Writers
Workshop for the Central Ohio Modern Quilt Guild:

  • Making (or not) During a Pandemic: the Role of Grief in the Creative Process

Undergraduate classes at The Ohio State University:

  • GEOG 2100: Introduction to Human Geography (teaching assistant)

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

Pacific Design Academy:

  • Intro to Fashion Design
    (a 4 week program for teens)

    • topics include illustration, design fundamentals, pattern making and garment construction
  • Behind the Seams: intro to Costume Craft
    (a 6 week program for home sewers to support them in designing, building and fitting their own original Halloween costumes)

The Intercultural Association of Victoria:

  • 2025 Advanced Garment Construction
  • 2024 Beginning Garment Construction

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

  • 2025 Founder of Victoria Queer Creatives
  • 2020-2021 Founder and facilitator of the Central Ohio Anti-Racist Reading Group (a monthly discussion group with a year-long curriculum of anti-racist texts)
  • 2020 Charity Chair of the Central Ohio Modern Quilt Guild partnering with Camp Kesem to make 200 “memory bags” for children who have lost a parent to cancer [then hundreds of cloth masks during the pandemic]
  • 2017-2019 Organizer of the OSU Geography Women’s Writing Retreat

SELECTED PUBLIC SPEAKING

  • 2024 The Pink Tape Measure – creative nonfiction story performed at Confabulation (a live storytelling event); Victoria, BC
  • 2024 Dr. Sew and Sew – creative nonfiction story performed at Confabulation; Victoria, BC
  • 2023 DAREing – reprised at the Best of Confabulation show; Victoria, BC
  • 2022 DAREing – creative nonfiction story performed at Confabulation; Victoria, BC

SERVICE

  • 2017-2018 President of the Ohio State University Geography Graduate Organization
  • 2016-2017 Secretary of the Ohio State University Geography Graduate Organization