I am Dean of Student Success at Lees-McRae College, where I am also appointed as an Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Writing Center. In years past, I held a Visiting Assistant Professor position in The Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies at the University of Mississippi, teaching courses in gender studies and mentoring students in the inaugural Lavender Living Learning Community. Outside of academia, I have nine years’ experience facilitating psychoeducational support groups (in-person and virtual) for survivors of domestic violence for The Compass Center in Chapel Hill, NC. I also previously served as Director of Programming and Outreach for Violet Valley Bookstore—a 501(c)3 non-profit bookstore based in Water Valley, MS.

My research revolves around mental health advocacy, exploring various ways in which activists and non-profit organizations use rhetoric as a means of healing extreme psychic distress and/or resisting mental health stigma. In my dissertation, I examined the rhetorical functions of “mad genius”—the longstanding cultural stereotype that mental illness is somehow connected to exceptional intelligence, creativity, wisdom, etc.—in women’s autobiographical narratives of mental illness. More recently, I’ve been studying the rhetoric of support/support groups as it pertains to resources for trauma survivors, publishing an article on the ethics of conducting research on Zoom-based support groups and a book chapter on the use of paratherapeutic rhetoric in community support groups.

To learn more about me and my work, please view my CV.