I am an educator with an imagination: I believe that learning happens everywhere   across the lifespan, and that it is the responsibility of institutions of higher education to facilitate intentional, transformational, learning experiences as well as opportunities to integrate that learning into a holistic sense of self.

I directly experienced the magic of portfolio learning while in graduate school and have worked to infuse life back into education ever since. I completed an electronic learning portfolio while pursuing my M.Ed. in higher education at Loyola University Chicago, and the spell was cast. While working as a graduate assistant in the Center for Experiential Learning, I began to explore the ways in which students engage in, reflect on, and make-meaning of their world. I spent a summer at the University of Maryland, College Park as an intern in Leadership & Community-Service Learning, where I had the opportunity to instruct a course in the Leadership Studies minor and develop an after-school curriculum for  a community-based cooperative extension program focused on human, economic, and environmental sustainability.

Upon completing my graduate degree, I went on to serve as the Director of Civic Engagement and Student Leadership Programs at Alfred State College, where I spearheaded the campus-wide initiative to institutionalize life-transforming civic engagement opportunities as a core aspect of the Alfred State experience. In 2011, I returned to Loyola University Chicago to get more involved in the portfolio movement, and am currently serving as the ePortfolio Coordinator in Loyola’s Center for Experiential Learning. I wholeheartedly believe that Loyola’s ePortfolio initiative will be a catalyst for students and educators to change the way we approach the idea and practice of learning.