Who I am

I’m an English instructor at Coastal Alabama Community College, where I teach composition, developmental writing, and literature and spend a lot of time convincing students that they are, in fact, capable of writing coherent, persuasive essays and that no, commas are not out to get them personally.

Before moving fully into the classroom, I worked across higher education in advising, tutoring, and student support roles at Arizona State University, the University of South Alabama, Bishop State Community College, and Spring Hill College. I’ve also worked as a dyslexia tutor and a writing center tutor, experiences that strongly inform my commitment to accessibility, clear structure, and transparent academic expectations.

My professional interests include composition, developmental writing, literature, and student support, with an emphasis on demystifying academic conventions without lowering standards. I design courses that are structured, rigorous, and humane in order to challenge students while refusing the idea that confusion or fear are useful teaching tools. I intentionally structure classroom expectations like deadlines, communication, and accountability around realistic workplace norms, while making those expectations explicit and teachable rather than implied and punitive. The goal is preparation, not pressure.

In addition to my teaching work, my research interests include horror and popular culture as sites for examining power, anxiety, institutional failure, and social control. I’m particularly interested in how horror reflects cultural fears around authority, belonging, and survival within opaque systems, questions that often overlap with broader conversations in literature, rhetoric, and cultural studies.

These interests are both scholarly and personal. Outside of formal research, I engage with horror and pop culture as a reader and viewer, drawn to stories that foreground subtext, atmosphere, and what is left unsaid. While this work does not define my classroom practice, it informs how I think about narrative, audience, and the emotional dimensions of interpretation.

Colleagues describe me as organized, thoughtful, and direct, with a teaching style grounded in high expectations, dry humor, and genuine care. I take writing seriously, myself slightly less so, and believe higher education works best when it is clear, fair, and not unnecessarily intimidating.