Educator

 

With more than 20 years of experience in higher education, I currently serves as the Director of the Whitehurst Family Honors Program at Barton College. My experience includes program administration, curriculum design, directing undergraduate research, and classroom instruction across a wide variety of disciplines (archival studies, art & design, business, general education, humanities, and research).

Additionally, I possess ample governance experience having served as chair of the faculty assembly, representative to the board of trustees, and on numerous committees (institutional, state, and national); participated in multiple reaccreditation processes; and participated in or provided leadership on the design of six academic programs.

My work as director of honors education includes collaborating with a variety of campus partners for the purposes of recruitment, retention, advising, and mentoring of students; recruitment of faculty; data collection, analysis, assessment, and records management; development and delivery of professional development and graduate school placement activities for students; and instruction across undergraduate and graduate classes. The budget I am responsible for includes student scholarship distribution, a biannual faculty lecture series, cultural and community life programming, and grant distribution for student travel to conferences and studies abroad.

Professionally, in honors, I have served as president of the North Carolina Honors Association and on several committees for the National Collegiate Honors Council. Deeply committed to honor education, my dissertation topic was on motivators and inhibitors of honors program completion at liberal arts institutions. This research and other projects on honors education have been accepted to numerous regional and national conferences. Additional research of mine includes the impact of writing on learning and cognition, place identity, first-nations peoples, East Asian visual culture, and early nineteenth century Irish history. My professional work has included recognition as a Boykin Research Fellow at Barton College, recipient of the Cork Historical and Philosophical Society research grant, and multiple awards for faculty of the year.

My deep love of learning continually pushes me to strive to become the best version of myself. It is for this reason I have extended my academic studies into such a wide variety of disciplines. Most recently, my MBA focused on strategic planning in short-, medium-, and long-term orientations; performance measurement, assessment, and enhancement; and perceptual motivation in wage-based and salaried employment.

  • Writing Letters by Candlelight

  • Students Assembling Their Magazine

  • Abroad with Students in Ireland

  • Ageism Lab Students Designed

  • Honors Program Graduates, 2025

  • Learning Gaelic Sports in Ireland

Blog

In May 2025, I led a study abroad trip to Ireland on the topic of Conflict and Division Through Irish Food and Sport. This travel study class explored the nature of how people divide themselves as observed through politics, religion, and identity, but also through the more accessible forms of food and sport. Course-specific learning included gaining an understanding of the nature of cultural divisions that create regional frictions between people, and to experience Irish culture through regional traditions including food and sport. In addition to eating the history of Ireland, we participated in a Gaelic sports workshop and played both Gaelic football and hurling.

  • Advanced Digital Media (studio art), Barton College

    Archival Research (honors), Barton College

    Art Appreciation (art history and criticism),Barton College

    Art of Display (travel; art history and criticism), Barton College

    Book Arts (studio art), Barton College

    Color Photography (studio art), Barton College

    Color Theory (studio art), Barton College

    Conflict and Division Through Irish Food and Sport (travel; honors), Barton College (with EF Tours)

    Community and Social Action (honors), Barton College

    Critical Conversations (honors), Barton College

    Critiquing the Internet (general education), Barton College

    Darkroom Photography (studio art), Tulane University, Northern Michigan University, Barton College

    Deconstructing America (general education), Barton College

    Digital Imaging (studio art), Barton College

    East Asian Visual Culture (travel; art history and criticism),Barton College

    Fine Art Photography (studio art), Barton College

    First Year Seminar (general education), Barton College

    Foundations of Art I/2-D Design (studio art), Barton College

    Foundations of Art II/3-D Design (studio art), Northern Michigan University, Barton College

    Foundations of Art III/4-D Design (studio art), Barton College

    Gallery and Collection Studies (art history and criticism),Barton College

    Graphic Design (studio art), Barton College

    Gun Violence and the Media (general education), Barton College

    High Performance Leadership (Masters of Business Administration), Barton College

    History of Photography (art history and criticism),Barton College

    Interdisciplinary Research Seminars (honors), Barton College: Resistance (2025, spring), Fabric (2024, fall), Death (2024, spring), Light (2023, fall), Maps (2023, spring), Pressure (2022, fall), God (2022, spring), Presence (2021, fall), Birds (2021, spring), Reactions (2020, fall), Freedom (2019, fall), Water (2019, spring), The Book (2019, spring), Memory is Overrated (2018, spring)

    Junior Research Presentation (honors), Barton College

    Junior Seminar (studio art), Barton College

    Medium & Large Format Photography (studio art), Barton College

    Nature of Inquiry (honors), Barton College 

    Nineteenth Century Photography (studio art), Barton College

    Photojournalism (studio art), Barton College 

    Professional Photography (studio art), Barton College 

    Reflections on Vocation: Service (honors), Barton College

    Seeing Bias (general education), Barton College

    Senior Research Proposal (honors), Barton College 

    Senior Research Presentation (honors), Barton College

    Senior Seminar (studio art), Northern Michigan University, Barton College

    Sophomore Research Presentation (honors), Barton College

    Technobabble: Art and Science (art history and criticism),Barton College