I am a researcher, teacher, and consultant. Currently, I serve Michigan State University as the 1855 Chair of Community and Urban Journalism  in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences.   My research explores the intersections of media, politics and power.  More specifically, I'd describe the three key lanes of work of past and present work as: 1) diagnostic analyses of media representation problems for protests and communities; 2) experimental and field work exploring solutions to media harm for historically marginalized and justifiably disengaged communities; and 3) community-engaged work driven primarily by community needs that I have the capacity to help fulfill. 

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I have extensively published diagnostic and intervention-oriented work that primarily identifies news media representation issues and their effects on engagement, trust, and public opinion.  Now, I am the director of a community-engaged research projects focused on  interventions and solutions to media misrepresentation of Black and other vulnerable communities. You can check out my project at www.liftproj.com.  With the help of an incredibly team, extensively study the role of trusted messengers in communication flows, exploring how the roles are established, maintained and supported to promote healthy and engaged communities.  I'm also growing a bit obsessed with the intersections of food and media, and have plenty to say about that over a rich risotto or a grilled churrasco.  My future work will focus extensively on the politics of food and media.  Whatever I do in the future, I will continue to strive for accessibility and impact. I started a cooking show called Food & Thought, and a podcast centering news & moms. I have given dozens of public talks and private consultations to get the research I have in the hands that need it. 

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Some of my most recent awards and recognitions were the 2024 Early Career Scholar Award, an all-division competition for the International Communications Association, two awards for community-engaged research from the American Political Science Association (2024) and the International Communication Association (2022), and the 2020 Junior Scholar of the Year Award by the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center of the Advancement of Women in Communication. 

 

Prior to pursuing my research career, I worked as a multimedia creator and writer in various local journalism outlets, as well as in non-profit health and education public relations positions. I received my doctorate in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin in 2017. I also received my Bachelor's (2008)  and Master's degree (2013) in Journalism & Public Relations from Baylor University.

 

Perhaps most importantly, I am the director of chaos for three extraordinary children, and the wife to a creative genius. As a displaced Texan, I spend my free time in Michigan complaining about the winter weather, and dreaming of the ocean. I aspire to one day have a thumb so green that I finally stop having to replace the air plants I keep mysteriously killing.  

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