I have been an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Concordia University - Chicago since Fall 2010. I teach experience-based courses such as Research Methods and Statistics, as well as Cognitive, Social, Health, and Personality Psychology. In addition to my teaching, I mentor students through research. My research group, HURG, regularly presents research projects at regional and national conferences.

I earned my Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. There I worked with David Copeland in the Reasoning and Memory Lab. We studied cognitive phenomena in the context of educational practices and social decision-making. My main line of research involves the mental representations people construct while reading narratives. I recently investigated the processing of stories written in differing narrative perspectives. These findings can also be applied in a social context, namely in the construction of health communications. I also have interests in pedagogical research, and have conducted a number of studies on effective teaching and student learning outcomes.
 
I have been fortunate to have taught a wide variety of courses at different institutions (University of Nevada Las Vegas: 2005-2009, Nevada State College: 2007-2010, and California State University, San Bernardino: 2003-2005). I am also grateful for the many wonderful students, colleagues, collaborators and mentors I met along the way.

Thanks for visiting my website! Here you will find more about my teaching and research interests. If I can provide additional information, please connect with me.