I am extremely fortunate. I grew up with parents who loved me and loved math, hopefully in that order. I remember working on homework with my dad, an electrical engineer, and how excited he was to discuss the cool and interesting aspects of calculus with me. At the time, I was more focused on ''getting the right answer'', but my dad was the first one to show me the beauty and creativity that is mathematics. I also have had many amazing, enthusiastic math teachers throughout my years in school who have inspired me to do what they do. Their approach to teaching mathematics made their classes interesting, challenging, and fun by using activities rather than didactic lecturing. My favorite teacher in high school would say, ''we are in school to learn to think creatively and logically'', and as I progress in my career as a mathematics educator, I have adopted his mantra. Learning to think creatively and logically is more than a grade, it is a life skill that will help students be successful in whatever they choose to be in the future, from engineer to economist! This is my mission as a teacher, to enable my students to process the world around them in a creative and logical manner. I believe this mission is closely aligned with Lewis' Lasallian mission especially regarding the pursuit of lifelong learning skills through creative and critical interactions. I also think that, as educators, we need to question how our methods affect student attitudes toward mathematics. Specifically, I want my teaching to instill a growth-mindset of learning. That is, I want to emphasize that learning is not based on the amount of intelligence possessed by a student, but that understanding can be developed through effort and motivation. These goals as an educator have shaped how I teach, how I serve, and how I approach research.

Pedagogical and Service Projects:

I have also been very active in scholarly activities beyond these areas and am involved in projects related to pedagogy, K-12 teacher professional development, and graduate student mentorship. In 2018, I was one of 28 professors invited to present and participate in an NSF funded workshop, National Pedagogical Initiatives on Linear Algebra, at the University of Oklahoma. This group is working to update the current Mathematical Association of America’s pedagogical recommendations for teaching linear algebra. I led a session on "Incorporating Applications into Linear Algebra Courses" with my collaborator Dr. Marie Snipes of Kenyan College and the ImageMath group. I have also worked with ACMS Gold ’14 Project NExT faculty members organizing job search workshops for graduate students. I have been the main organizer for these workshops and have presented our collaborative work at two ACMS conferences and at the Indiana MAA Sectional Meetings. As part of the Southwest Chicago Math Teachers’ group, I also regularly present sessions at our meetings. These sessions involve creating an interactive activity that delves into interesting mathematics. This contributes to the advancement of learning for K-college students and faculty. Some of the sessions I have run include exploring binary number tricks with liar’s bingo, modeling polynomial division using exploding dots, analyzing the “fairness” of voting schemes, and exploring mathematics of the game Prime Climb. I have been the invited speaker at Dordt University’s Math Teachers’ Circle Kick-off Event and for the 2020 Virtual Math Teachers' Circle Summer Workshop hosted by AIM.I also have been recognized as someone with experience with Data Science both with my sports modeling research and from working with Dr. Piotr Szczurek. I was invited to give a presentation about our data science program at the 2018 JMM SIAM Mini-symposium on Data Science in the Mathematics Curriculum. I also served as an external program reviewer a university's undergraduate program in data science.