I'm an teaching associate professor in the School of Computing and Data Science at the University of Illinois at Urabana-Champaign, where I began in August 2022. Before that I worked in a similar role at the University of Virginia. I currently serve in the school as the director of undergraduate programs. Externally, I am a member of the GEDCOM Steering Committee, as well as on the program committee for various conferences in CS education. I earned a Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of Virginia, M.S. and B.S. degrees in computer science from Brigham Young University, and A.A. and A.S. degrees from Lakeland Community College.
My primary academic activity is education: education of students, teaching assistants, faculty, and computer science educators at every level. My scholarship has two main thrusts. In computer science education I work to disseminate best bractices in equitable course design and pedagogy. I research data models for facilitating large-scale cooperative family history research and participate in various data standards efforts in that space. I also participate in a variety of other endevors, including university computing currilcum design, K-12 computing education and curricula, consulting and teaching about how student background impacts learning and approaches that mitigate that impact, and ocassional forays into computer graphics and algorithms.