I am an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Maine.  My research examines the way in which rural schools and communities respond to 21st century social and economic change. As part of this work, I co-lead the Rural Vitality Lab, a cross-institutional research partnership between the University of Maine and Colby College. My teaching and service reflect my interest in creating and sustaining healthy developmental ecologies for rural youth as I work with aspiring principals, teacher leaders and doctoral students to partner with and be community leaders. I also currently serve as Co-Editor of the National Rural Education Association‘s scholarly journal, The Rural Educator.

Two recent projects include co-editing the Bloomsbury Handbook on Rural Education in the United States  with Dr. Amy Azano and Dr. Karen Eppley, and co-authoring a book for Harvard Education Press with Dr. Lyn Brown and Dr. Mark Tappan entitled  Trauma-responsive schooling: Centering student voice and healing (release date: April 2022), based on five years of work in partnership with rural schools here in New England around trauma-responsive system change. An overview of other current research and scholarly projects can be found here.

I received my Ph.D. in Educational Leadership  from Penn State’s Department of Education Policy Studies where I worked as a research affiliate of the Center on Rural Education and Communities. Before I became a researcher, I was the Executive Director of the Nanubhai Education Foundation, a 501c3 organization working in Gujarat, India on “Inspiring Students, Empowering Teachers, and Transforming Rural Classrooms”, as well as a high-school educator in rural India and a middle-school educator in South Boston with the national non-profit Citizen Schools.