I was born and raised on the southern side of Chicago, so I've always been a Southerner even if I didn't live below the Mason-Dixon Line until I moved to Chapel Hill in 1999! I earned my M.A. and Ph.D. in American History there, where I also became a devotee of Tarheel basketball. After completing a visiting position at Wake Forest University, I began teaching at Pembroke in the fall of 2006. I am writing a book on the impact of U.S. land policy on Indian communities in Oklahoma, and when not teaching or doing that, I am enjoying my life with my husband and our dog.

I've realized that I have to learn with my students in order to teach them. It isn't a one-way street, and I have to keep growing as a scholar if I am going to encourage the same in them. Students respond to someone who is interested in their material and has passion for their subject because it gives them permission to be energized by something, too. So maybe all of my students won't love American history, but because I demonstrate that it is ok to be a nerd about topics I find fascinating, they'll know it is okay to let their inner nerd run free, too!

Students typically tell me that they enjoy being challenged to think about how the past shapes them now. We discuss controversial topics in my classes, and in doing so, we make the past relevant.

Students here are so diverse. I never know what I'll get when I walk into my classes on the first day--or any day after that!

My areas of expertise are both Native American and American women's history. I enjoy teaching both fields because they enable students to explore a part of our past that is often obscured by the focus on Presidents and battles. I enjoy watching students learn this material because they often feel personally empowered by it. Folks who know who they are and where they come from aren't so easily knocked off their course, and understanding history is part of that process.