I approach education with a clear understanding of the saliency of hard work, dedication to one’s craft and above all else consistency. My goal as a professor is to impart on my students three these key principles as they pursue their educational goals as they have served me well in the achievement of my own goals within higher education. As an educator, I am committed to lifelong learning and cultivating a thirst for learning new things and creating an atmosphere for genuine active understanding.

My dissertation work focused on caloric restriction and bone mechanics and was awarded the American College of Sports Medicine’s Bone Interest Groups Basic Science Research Award (2013). My basic science experience in bone and bone biomechanics is informed by my clinical experience as an athletic trainer giving me clinical hands-on experience in designing and constructing prophylactic devices for the management and treatment of acute injuries in a variety of athletes in diverse sports populations which serves me well in my current work as a faculty co – advisor for a major qualifying project (MQP) entitled, “3D Printed Prosthetic Hand” that will seek to design and create a 3D-printed prosthetic hand in order to allow for greater range of motion and control of the hand in the 2016 – ’17 academic year.

My clinical and basic science skills inform my teaching of laboratory courses on solid tissue mechanics techniques and applications focusing on using a project-based approach to understanding the theory and practice of mechanically testing materials. The most recent offering her solid tissue mechanics lab application course, student groups of three to four use their knowledge of mechanics to design a testing protocol that will answer real world mechanics questions pertaining to medical device mechanical viability, specifically for the repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm.
In the upcoming academic cycle, I will continue to mentor design project groups (approx. 8 students) , focusing on topics related to orthopaedics, biomechanics, and rehabilitation. For example, “Improved Prophylactic brace for the management and treatment of chronic posterior tibialis inflammation”.