About me.

I am a teacher, artist, and advisor to works-in-progress based in Nashville, Tennessee. My professional life is characterized by exploring how individuals in communities, neighborhoods, and organizational settings discover purpose and meaning through creative engagement.  This focus is the product of many experiences: my work in higher education, my service to small arts organizations as a board member and director, my experience as an artist and creator of new work, and my training as a facilitator in diverse settings.

My professional affiliation is at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, where I serve as a university lecturer and advising lead, teaching and managing advising efforts with students in Vanderbilt’s largest undergraduate major. I am a “Double Dore” -  I earned my undergraduate degree in history from Vanderbilt and my Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt Divinity School.

I am also a Certified Practitioner of Critical Response Process (CRP), devised by choreographer and MacArthur Fellow Liz Lerman. CRP unleashes the power of informed inquiry and the potential of meaningful dialogue between a maker and a group of responders, animating generative conversations and creating a sense of community in diverse contexts.  I incorporate the values and practices of CRP into my classroom and into conversations with individual artists and community-based organizations.

Teaching.

I am a Lecturer and lead undergraduate advising in the Department of Human & Organizational Development at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University.

 I’ve taught for years in multiple settings, subjects, and age groups, with one common thread: teaching to me is primarily an act of love. My pedagogy is grounded in creative practices, critical consciousness, and experiential learning. My hope is that our classroom is culturally attentive, prioritizes curiosity, questions assumptions, and that students receive feedback that is motivating and growth-oriented.

I am a Certified Practioner in Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process, a method for giving and getting feedback on work in progress that “combines the power of questions with the focus and challenge of informed dialogue.” I am actively working to further embed this enormously powerful tool into my pedagogy and my engagement with campus and community partners.

Advising and facilitation.

I enjoy working with all kinds of groups to make their work easier. To do this I often use:

Writing and performing.

I write. 1000 words a day in a journal, hundreds of notes on my phone, scribbles in a thousand blank books, lots of open Google Doc tabs and Scrivener files, an unfinished novel or three, and Word files on abandoned floppy discs shoved in junk drawers.

In the spring of 2022 I co-produced Tiny Beautiful Things with Actors Bridge Ensemble, where I chair the board of directors. At Actors Bridge I’ve also co-produced Kodachrome In 2018 and co-wrote and performed in Frozen Moment, a devised performance piece inspired by the #metoo movement. I’ve also appeared in multiple productions of the Vagina Monologues and participated in Act Like a Big GRRRL circles.   In the past I’ve curated an occasional variety show, the Love Circle Variety Show Hour, and I also performed improv and musical improv locally in Nashville. I’ve trained in the Meisner technique with Actors Bridge , in improv with The Second City and the Annoyance, and in clown with Kendall Cornell and Dody DiSanto.