I am an Associate Professor in Higher Education and Student Affairs in the School of Education at Iowa State University.
My research focuses on students and instructors experiences with learning technologies in undergraduate higher education.
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This includes how digital social media shapes students’ access to and pathways within higher education, how students form social and academic communities through web-enabled technologies, and how instructors use learning technology innovations in their classroom. I am also interested in how the proliferation of big data tools shape students’ autonomy on campus.
My work contributes to the ongoing debate about the process of student engagement in higher education, identifying the important role of social and technological systems that inform students’ opportunity structures. I am particularly interested in how new and emerging technologies limit students’ and instructors autonomy through nudging, risk classification, and digital redlining. I also study how institutions negotiate the use of student data and how students become known to the institution through their data traces.
I have made some examples of my current research available on this site, or you can check out my CV for a detailed list of projects. At Iowa State, I teach courses on organizational theory, student development theory, college student learning, and quantitative research methods.
At Iowa State, I serve as the director for certificate in Applied Research in Human Sciences and I am the program coordinator for the residential masters degree in Student Affairs.
Prior to returning to Iowa State, I was the Associate Director for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI) Life in the K.C. Potter Center at Vanderbilt University. I also served as the coordinator for LGBT Life at Washington University in Saint Louis. Through my research and teaching, I aim to develop resources, interventions, and foster campus and classroom environments that support access to and equity within postsecondary education.