Education
Ph.D., University of Denver, Interpersonal and Family Communication
M.A., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Interpersonal Communication
B.A., Concordia College, Relational Communication
Personal Statement
I’m an artist, researcher, teacher, and healer who studies interpersonal and intergenerational trauma.
The Official Line: My areas of focus include interpersonal and family communication, health communication, and communication and culture. My scholarship engages three main issues: how individuals and families communicatively make sense of trauma, how communicative sense-making practices engage larger sociocultural discursive contexts, and how communicative sense-making practices affect and reflect mental, physical, and relational health and well-being; and individual and collective identity.
The Bottom Line: I believe you have to “treat” (i.e., communicatively make sense of) trauma in order to heal. My motto right now is “Be the bison” (“Be the bison; charge the storm; treat the trauma”). There’s an Indigenous teaching about the bison and how they respond to storms. Most heard animals turn and run away from an approaching storm, trying to outrun it. Instead of outrunning the storm, they run with it, prolonging their suffering. Bison, however, turn and charge directly into the storm, and in doing so, minimize suffering and discomfort.
I believe that trauma and healing are two sides of the same coin. So, while I study communicative sense-making of interpersonal and intergenerational trauma, I simultaneously study strength and resiliency, empowerment and resistance, and most of all, healing.
I believe that knowledge is one of the greatest forms of healing. I do not believe that teaching is a purely academic endeavor; I believe it is equally physical, emotional, and social. As such, I seek to support learners’ intellectual, cultural, and personal growth.
When I’m not performing my roles as researcher and teacher, you can find me practicing yoga, painting in my home art studio, paddle boarding on the lake, or hiking the trails with my two favorite guys, my husband Joe and four-legged son Riot.
Courses Taught
COMM 1020 - Communicating Difference
COMM 3223 - Communication and Creativity
COMM 3395 - Special Topics: Communication and Eating Disorders