I am a researcher, teacher, and consultant. I am an associate professor, and I hold the 1855 Community and Urban Journalism Professorship in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University. 

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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. My present and ongoing community-engaged research projects focus on reparative interventions and solutions to media misrepresentation of marginalized communities. You can check out my Midwestern-based project at www.liftproj.com. 

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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 photographer, designer, and writer in various journalism and public relations positions. I received my doctorate in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin in August 2017. Before that, I worked as a media specialist for Baylor Law School while I pursued my master's degree in Journalism, New Media & Public Relations at Baylor. I also received my Bachelor's degree in Journalism & Public Relations from Baylor University.

 

Perhaps most importantly, I am the self-declared director of chaos for three extraordinary children. My love language is food. As a displaced Texan, I spend my free time in Michigan complaining about the winter weather.  I aspire to one day have a thumb so green that I finally stop having to replace the airplants I keep mysteriously killing. 

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