About Me

My mother and sister are both on the autism spectrum, while I have ADHD. Because of my experiences growing up – learning to communicate with my sister, realizing my mom’s difficulties in dealing with social situations, and dealing with my inability to focus on topics I found boring – I have always been inclined to think outside the box when considering methods of expressing ideas.

In high school, I embraced theatre design and performance as a way to combine my interests in psychology, history, visual art, and storytelling, then present the results to an audience. I loved considering how to effectively synthesize and reformat various concepts in order to communicate an idea to an audience – whether it be an audience of one or thousands.

My interest in communicating ideas to an audience led to studying theatre at Northwestern University with a focus in costume design. While Northwestern didn’t have an undergraduate design program, I was able to take advantage of the incredible MFA program during my time there.

During my junior and senior years, I took seven graduate design courses on topics like design rendering, text analysis, and computer graphics for theatre. The most important skills I took away from these classes were how to research a concept, explore different sources of information, then synthesize and present what I learned in order to effectively communicate my ideas to an audience member.

I learned how to use the right tools to communicate the right ideas – why waste a thousand words when a single image will do?

Though I loved creating theatre and working on a design process, I realized that I couldn’t have the direct, palpable impact on the communities that I felt most strongly connected to through costume design. I began working as a freelance teaching artist in Chicago in a wide variety of educational contexts: I taught six year olds how to sew, tutored middle school students on math and science, coached high school students on essay writing, and instructed graduate students in Photoshop rendering. I loved jumping around different topics and learning audiences, as it challenged my creativity.

While at Northwestern, I helped to found Seesaw Theatre, a student organization dedicated to creating theatrical experiences for individuals on the autism spectrum. When devising our shows, we focused on the specific needs and interests of our audience members. Rather than complex, emotionally-driven plots, we created multi-sensory adventures with a guide assigned to each person in attendance to make sure their needs were being met and that they were getting the most out of their experience.

Through Seesaw Theatre, I discovered Camp Red Kite, a summer arts camp for kids with autism. I was an intern after my sophomore year, then was hired as the visual arts and drama teaching artist after I graduated. This is when I started to realize that I could have a far more direct impact on people’s lives as an educator, as well as the lack of pre-existing resources for students with autism.

I would spend hours searching for books or craft ideas relevant to my students’ interests and needs, then frequently end up creating my own resources. I realized I had a knack for breaking down complicated tasks like designing and building a puppet or devising a play based on a picture book into small, manageable steps.

After I moved to Colorado, I began working at The Joshua School, which is a facility school for kids on the autism spectrum. As a small school with a 1:1 staff-to-student ratio, I was able to create highly individualized education plans, curriculum, and materials for my students. I designed lessons covering all kinds of topics: the history of voting rights, how to plan meals and make a grocery list, how to gain or give consent in relationships, how to advocate for your needs at work, and many others. I enjoyed finding a logical, precise way to explain abstract or seemingly intangible skills while customizing my lessons to each student’s specific needs.

Outside of my time at The Joshua School, I also worked at Prompt, a college application and essay coaching company. I had previously worked with students on college essays in Chicago, and I loved helping students take their lived experiences and craft them into compelling essays that demonstrated what they could contribute to a college campus. At Prompt, I began as a writing instructor, but quickly worked my way up to be on the hiring and training team. I found it really fun and fascinating to work on the meta-skill of teaching other instructors how to teach.