About Me

I get excited about all kinds of learning environments and tools. Whether it’s an in-person or virtual field trip, museum exhibit, community event, or something totally new – I love building them all. Designing meaningful educational experiences that excite the learner’s sense of wonder makes me feel alive. Getting down at eye level and answering a kid’s earnest, if bizarre question, is rejuvenating.

As the Museum Educator at the Missoula Butterfly House, I get asked a lot of great questions. One that still influences my work as an instructional designer came from a little boy who asked excitedly “is that a raccoon!?!” when being presented with a praying mantis. The animal on my finger was so clearly NOT a raccoon that I simply said “no” and moved on. I think about that interaction often. What observations or previous experience prompted that question? What other response could I have offered to build a more accurate understanding?

Reflecting on this exchange reminds me to support the innate curiosity of my learners while helping them to build a better understanding of our world. I have made this the focus of my approach to instructional design. The world is full of curious and diverse learners and learning experiences – I want to experience and support them all.

Originally from the East Coast, I studied documentary filmmaking at Ithaca College’s Park School of Communications, graduating in 2008. I loved the process of educating through film and the ability to work on a range of unique and powerful stories.

The call of the mountains prompted my move to Colorado shortly thereafter. In Boulder, Colorado I worked as a documentary film editor and co-founded Earth Explorers, a STEM education nonprofit that connects student filmmakers with working scientists in their community.

In the spring of 2015, my husband Eric got a dream job in the athletic department at the University of Montana, his alma mater, and we moved north to Missoula. Through my work with Earth Explorers, I had fallen in love with informal science education and made that the focus of my job search. I joined the Missoula Butterfly House & Insectarium as the Museum Educator that same spring and have fully embraced the life of an informal educator and instructional designer ever since.

In the years since joining the Missoula Butterfly House team, I have started earning my Masters in Museum Studies from the Harvard Extension School. My winding professional journey has taken me from documentary filmmaking to film and science education to museum education. As I advanced in my career I found myself wanting to further hone my skills as an instructional designer and museum educator. The Harvard Extension School offers me the opportunity to continue working full time while working on my degree remotely and I expect to graduate in the Spring of 2022.