I am an Associate Professor of Art Education at the University of New Mexico whose research and teaching focus on collaborative aesthetic inquiry within creative communities of practice. I explore how children, artists, teachers, materials, and environments come into relation through shared aesthetic experiences. I am curious about what emerges through acts of making together, which can foster an ecology of artistic practices grounded in geographic, social, cultural, and political contexts. In this ecology, listening is understood as a practice of care that shapes inquiry and collective meaning, and emergent inquiry is experienced as embodied and magical. What emerges through these relational encounters is magical, unpredictable, transformative, and full of possibility. When guided by reciprocity and adaptation, these practices remain sustainable amid uncertainty and instability.
My research examines how artistic practices create spaces for relational learning, collective meaning-making, and responsive forms of inquiry among children, educators, artists, materials, and communities. I support teachers in developing action research practices that investigate their own interests alongside children’s questions, ideas, and artmaking experiences. Through this work, I explore how educators can cultivate creative environments that honor childhood, embrace uncertainty, and recognize multiple forms of expression and knowledge.
I am the co-founder of the Collaborative Teachers Institute, which cultivates a culture of creative inquiry that honors childhood through approaches that are deeply human, place-based, and responsive to children, families, and communities. My scholarship has been featured in Visual Arts Research, Studies in Art Education, Art Education, Research in Arts and Education, International Journal of Art & Design Education, Social Theory in Art Education, International Journal of Education & the Arts, and IMAG. I am co-author and co-editor of Affirming the Rights of Emergent Bilingual and Multilingual Children and Families: Interweaving Research and Practice through the Reggio Emilia Approach (Routledge, 2023) and co-editor of Listening Pedagogies: Creative and Arts-Based Approaches for Education in Unstable Times (Routledge, 2026).
My research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the LANL Foundation, NMArts, and University of New Mexico faculty grants. I served as Chair of the New Mexico Arts Education Advocacy Council (2025-2027), President of the National Art Education Association Early Childhood Interest Group (2024–2026), and Interim Associate Dean of Research in the UNM College of Fine Arts (2025). My honors include the 2026 National Art Education Association Pacific Region Higher Educator of the Year Award, the 2020–2021 New Mexico Art Education Association Art Educator of the Year Award, the 2020–2021 New Mexico Art Education Association Higher Education Educator of the Year Award, and the 2017–2018 New Mexico Art Education Association Art Advocate of the Year Award.
Before joining the University of New Mexico, I taught at Millikin University and DePaul University. I have more than 20 years of experience teaching art to people ranging from young children to adults in community settings, museums, and public school classrooms across Arizona, Chicago, Wisconsin, and New Mexico. I have partnered with the Albuquerque Museum, the Santa Fe Opera, and other museums and community organizations in New Mexico and the Chicago area to provide pedagogical leadership for workshops and classroom guides designed to engage young children through the arts. I also developed a unique position as an early childhood art resource specialist within Albuquerque Public Schools.
I earned my Master’s degree in Art Education from the University of Arizona and my Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from the Curriculum, Aesthetics, and Teacher Education program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Originally from Wisconsin, I now live in Albuquerque, New Mexico.