Department of Kinesiology : Meet Our Graduate Students

Current Research :
While I'm still discovering, expanding, and refining my research interests, my current research focuses on representations and understandings of the body and injury through personal narrative of elite gymnasts, particularly through autobiography.

Interesting Fact :
I worked in college athletics for 8 years before returning to the role of a student to pursue my doctorate. I served as an assistant women's gymnastics coach at Temple University, a conference assistant for the Middle Atlantic Corporation (Division III athletic conference), as an Academic Advisor for student-athletes at The George Washington University, and as an Athletic Academic Advisor and Assistant Director of Academic Services at Central Michigan University.

Also, I still find unsurpassed inner peace when I'm up on a balance beam.

Planned Career Path :
I hope to continue my career in academia as a professor and researcher upon completion of my program at Maryland.

Skills & Qualities :
My greatest passion is for the sport of women's artistic gymnastics and Olympic sports in general. My mother attributes this passion to the fact that she watched Nadia Comaneci in the 1976 Olympics while pregnant, so in her words, I've been absorbing since I was in utero. My academic and professional background has exposed me to many different components of kinesiology and athletics. My undergraduate degree focused on movement science, whereas my masters concentrated on the business and administration of athletics. In my professional career, I've been lucky to experience athletics as a coach, an administrator, and an advisor. Through all of this, my love of athletics has remained: I am still moved by both the inherent beauty in human movement and the sociological relevance of sport in culture.