I am a social scientist and digital media researcher. My work emphasizes exploring ways to help people connect their interests and passions to professional pathways and opportunities. Specifically, I focus on people’s trajectories in digital contexts, which for me, can mean making videogames, learning to code, or participating in an online community. Games are closest to my heart though because games are the reason I got into academics and research. My recent projects focus on diversity and inclusivity in the videogame industry, equity and opportunity for underrepresented youth in digital media learning spaces, and more broadly, videogames and learning.
Currently, I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern California’s Pullias Center for Higher Education. There I am working on a research study using games and technology to support underrepresented and low-income high school students with applying to college. We are in the process of implementing a two-year intervention in high schools across California and investigating its impact on students’ FAFSA completion, as well as their college application and college acceptance rates. I am also leading case studies at six school sites.
I completed my PhD in Digital Media from the department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2015. In collaboration with the Games+Learning+Society Center, I worked on a variety of game-related research projects and outreach programs. My dissertation, Reasons Why & Reasons To Be: Investigating Women’s Pathways in Games, is a two-part qualitative investigation of women’s pathways and experiences in the game industry. Before graduate school I worked as a freelance writer and full-time editor in the games press.