Classes Taught

University of Nevada, Reno

  • Graduate
    • PSC404B/604B - Public Personnel Administration (MPA)
    • PSC 751 - Public Policy Analysis (MPA/PP Cert)
    • PSC 785 - Leadership Applications in Public and Nonprofit Organizations (MPA)
    • PSC 791 - Communicating Public Policy (MPA/PP Cert)
  • Undergraduate
    • PSC 210 - American Public Policy
    • PSC 341 - Elements of Public Administration

University of North Carolina, Greensboro

  • Graduate
    • PSC 604 - Public Personnel Management (MPA)
    • PSC 612 - Organizational Theory (MPA)
  • Undergraduate
    • PSC 301 - Introduction to Public Administration

North Carolina State University

Undergrad

Teaching Statement

I encourage students to be actively curious about the organizations and systems they engage with, currently inhabit, or may in the future. From my experience as a professional and manager, I found that curiosity was a key element of success, not only about a specific topic but about their peers. As a result, my courses actively create an environment where students build relationships and engage honestly with each other. In addition, an emphasis on curated exploration motivates the development of relevant and flexible learning environments that prepare students to think critically to be proactive, creative, and contributing members of their organizations and communities. To achieve this, I have reorganized syllabi to encourage a mixture of activities that maximize the inclusiveness of courses based on students' unique needs, comfort levels, and backgrounds.

As an instructor at a minority-serving institution, I have found that diverse classrooms make a rewarding experience for the students and the instructor. Leveraging this diversity, I encourage students to engage with issues that matter to them while treating the class as they would a job. For many students, especially those traditionally isolated from the mainstream conversation, this provides an opportunity to learn through their lenses, contributing to development and increased agency in their interests and exposing their classmates and instructor to problems and concerns, filling in blind spots in our own experiences. My courses build students ' confidence in new situations by situating students in the world grounded from their perspective.

Students can be anxious about the nature of the work ahead of them. Therefore, when developing my syllabi, I focus on the most efficient and purposeful assignments, readings, and lectures needed to achieve learning outcomes and stimulate application. Teaching public staffers how to build websites for cities emphasized the importance of application and simplicity. To apply concepts, I find that being flexible to student interests is essential in maintaining students' confidence and engaging them to learn. When constructing classes, I incorporate choices without it seeming as if there has been something lost. I emphasize repeated engagement and application of the material and careful peer interaction. I believe in allowing students to iterate on their ideas and bounce off each other. This approach requires understanding why students have taken the class and surfacing students' unique perspectives on the topic at hand. It also requires careful editing and translation of the most abstract concepts to bring them into lived experience.

The COVID-19 pandemic has sharpened my teaching skills in several ways. First, the use of multiple modalities: fully online, in-person but distanced, and a mixture of both. Second, it has highlighted why formal coursework is so critical and what makes it unique. My courses have become more fluid, collaborative, and responsive. Although students can find most information online, my COVID-19 classes reemphasized the value of exploration, peer reinforcement, and the use of tools that encourage students to continuously reflect on what they are learning and the success of each class.

I incorporate computing technologies, data management, and analytics into teaching. For public managers, information technology is an ever-present part of the operation. A manager's ability to use it effectively as a management tool can strengthen their capability in practice. Awareness of these tools is essential to improving their value, particularly for diverse communities overlooked by procedural habits. As a former tech vendor, I am keenly aware of oversold promises and technological limits.

My teaching interests are extensive, reflecting the multidisciplinary courses I have already prepped, including organizational theory and behavior, research methods, introduction to public administration and organizations, public management, and personnel management. In addition, some possible courses I am prepared to teach include local government management, public budgeting and finance, economic development policy, policy analysis, technology policy, public communication, and engagement. As an organizational theorist, I find that courses improve my research productivity.

Ultimately, I trust my students. The unique experiences and perspectives that courses bring together can be maximized when students feel safe sharing their realities with others. I am most successful when students tell me that my classes expanded their understanding of opportunities in public service either as a career, volunteer, or researcher. The following quote describes the general reaction from students to my teaching style:

I believe this course was incredibly comprehensible and beneficial to me as an aspiring activist, and civil participant … I believe the memos and focusing on a specific program over the course of the class was incredibly beneficial in understanding more on a specific scale of what these organizations do and how they accomplish it... I felt this course was very smooth, informative, and captivating in the sense of being motivated to continue to learn and develop on the subject.

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