About

My early professional experiences as a preschool teacher, child care center director, and parent educator provided a rich foundation in child development to supplement my certified early childhood teaching knowledge and skills as a pre-kindergarten and first-grade teacher in a Title 1 Oklahoma public school. I left the elementary classroom to begin teaching at Northeastern State University (NSU) in Broken Arrow and Tahlequah, OK, for six years. After earning tenure and promotion, I left NSU to accept a research faculty position at Tulsa University (TU). I left TU when their School of Education lost its accreditation status to certify teachers and moved to Texas Woman's University (TWU) in 2017 to begin as an Assistant Professor in Early Childhood Education faculty in the Literacy and Learning Department. At TWU, I teach both online and face-to-face courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels in early childhood education, technology use, literacy, STEAM, brain-based learning, and creative arts for young children. In 2021, I earned tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in ECE.  

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My passion is to support teachers as they work hard in the classroom assisting students in their learning process. My current research focuses on supporting early childhood educators' use of interdisciplinary STEM lessons to allow young children an opportunity to engage and participate in documenting their understanding of content using digital tools. My research agenda focuses on early childhood educators' use and integration of technology in classrooms, STEM interdisciplinary content to include literacy and coding activities, brain-based learning, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and socially supportive learning environments. My CV provides evidence of a consistent and substantial focus on scholarship through presentations at international, national, state, and regional conferences and as an author. I have published in multiple peer-reviewed professional journals, including Young Children, Early Childhood Education Journal, and the Journal of Literacy and Technology. I am a co-author of this book, Integrating Technology in Literacy Instruction: Frameworks and Models for All Learners.