What is a typical day like for you?
Alongside my program team colleagues, I work every day to support of teachers. This often includes designing professional development experiences, creating curriculum, and curating resources that advance global learning in schools. The work I do is collaborative, creative, and deeply rewarding.
Tell us about your background and what brought you to Primary Source.
My background is in history and the humanities. Before joining Primary Source, I was a professor at Regis College for almost two decades, where I taught courses in women’s history, immigration history, peace and justice studies, global issues, and all aspects of U.S. history. I’ve published in several of those fields as well, including my book Entangling Alliances: Foreign War Brides and American Soldiers in the Twentieth Century (New York University Press, 2010). Regis gave me remarkable opportunities to explore interdisciplinary collaboration and to integrate social justice approaches to pedagogy and curriculum design. Teaching primarily first-generation college students solidified my conviction that education can and should be transformational. I earned an undergraduate degree from Yale University and a doctorate in history from New York University.
What inspires you to do this work?
Young people are my inspiration—those in my own life and those I have worked with in schools. I worry a great deal about the fragile world we are leaving them. I strongly believe the knowledge, skills and mindset of a global education will help the next generation find a way forward.
Where in the world would you most like to visit?
I’d love to visit some of the places I’ve spent years learning about including Vietnam and the Philippines. East Africa is very high on my wish list. And in the next few years, a long-awaited trip to Japan is on the docket. But for now I’ll have to continue my vicarious global reading!
