I am an Associate Professor, Associate Dean, and direct the writing program at DePaul University's School for New Learning. I received my Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Theory from Northwestern University and taught reading, literature and writing classes at Olive-Harvey College before coming to DePaul. I have published scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals including Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy and WPA: Writing Program Administration. My current research is motivated by two questions: How do adult students develop as writers when they return to school? How can the teaching of writing to adult students be improved?
Articles (Peer Reviewed)
Anxiety and the Newly Returned Adult Student, Teaching English in the Two-Year College (TETYC) (2012)
Based on interviews with students who had recently returned to school, this essay demonstrates the...
How Antonio Graduated on Out of Here – Improving the Success of Adult Students with an Individualized Writing Course, The Journal of Basic Writing (2011)
Adult students are more anxious about writing for school, less familiar with academic conventions, and...
Working with Wikis in Writing-Intensive Classes (with Suzanne Sanders-Betzold, Polly Hoover, and Peggy St. John), Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy (2009)
Most teachers, having too little time and too much experience with the next-new-thing, tend to...
What WPAs Need to Know to Prepare New Teachers to Work with Adult Students, WPA: Writing Program Administration (2008)
Most graduate students and new faculty have little, if any, preparation for teaching the approximately...
Keep It Real: A Maxim for Service-Learning in Community Colleges, Reflections: A Journal of Writing, Service-Learning, and Community Literacy (2003)
Is service-learning of value for community college students who have very limited time and who...