Professional focus: I serve as Webb’s director of experiential learning and director of the Junior Scholars Summer Program. In fall 2022, I am teaching Honors Global Societies & Sustainability and Advanced Studies Literature of Revolution & the Atlantic World.
Scholarly or professional activities: My graduate degrees are in in early American history. I am the author of professional works on history and religion, including: “Saving the Jews: Religious Toleration and the American Society for Meliorating the Condition of the Jews” (The Journal of the Early Republic. Vol. 34, No. 4, Winter 2014) and “Making an American Church,” a book chapter (Beneke and Grenda, eds. A Lively Experiment: Religious Toleration in American from Roger Williams to the Present. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015).
Where are you from? Murrieta, California
What is your favorite spot at Webb? The Adirondack chair under the tree across from Jackson Library next to the museum steps; Faculty Field, where you look in one direction to see the San Gabriel Mountains leading up to Mt. Baldy and you look in the other direction to you see the skyline of downtown LA. I love this spot because it captures so perfectly what Webb is – a place that embraces the relationships between the wonders of the natural world and human creation.
What is your favorite book (or who is your favorite author?) As an avid reader, I can’t answer this question. I’ve connected to too many books in too many different ways. Instead, I’ll give you some of my favorites I read this year. The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemison; Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow; Piranesi by Susanna Clark and Nature Poem by Tommy Pico
What is your typical Saturday routine? As the solo parent of a 9-year-old and 4-year-old, Saturday, like every day, is a practice in organized chaos. We take the 4-year-old to ballet and the 9-year-old and I go for a run. The kids will likely find a crew of fellow faculty kids to play with while I cook a little, do housework or yard work, and maybe some prep for the week. I’ll try with various degrees of success to get the little one to nap and the big one to read. Weekend days usually end at the pool. We all love to swim.