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My views on research, education, and the world have been generally influenced by Lev Vygotsky's Cultural-Historical Theory,  Foucault's Poststructuralism, Gloria Anzaldua's view of the Borderlands, and Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 

When it comes to writing research specifically, I draw upon Steve Graham's work on communities of writers, Charles Bazerman's Sociocultural perspectives on Writing, and  Montserrat Castello's work with graduate students and professionals. Additionally, I always consider Flower and Hayes's foundational work on the cognitive processes of writing, James Gee's critical views on discourse, and Gert Rijlaarsdam's approaches to studying these processes.  I don't like to position myself in just one layer of the writing world; I value and have learned from many. 

While I was technically trained as a quantitative researcher through my graduate coursework, my graduate school journey has helped me appreciate qualitative and mixed methods.  My goal as a teacher and researcher is to contribute to making education a site for everyone to develop the tools to be critical citizens of the world, with the freedom to choose the career paths to fulfill their lives.

As a social scientist, I have a firm belief that I should be in constant touch with society. Through volunteer work and recreational activities, I remind myself that there is a world beyond academia. 

I have worked with multiple researchers and labs along my academic journey, including: 

• Dr. Kathleen VanTol at Dordt University 

• Dr. Bruce Vermeer at Dordt University

• Dr. Bonnie Meyer at Penn State 

• Dr. Alexandra list and the Learning from Online Sources and Text (LOST) Lab at Penn State

• Dr.Jimena Cosso and the HOLA STEM lab at Penn State

• Penn State Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT)

• Penn State's library cataloging and metadata services

• Dr. Matt McCrudden at Penn State

• Dr. Leah Hollist at Penn State

• Dr. Alex Coso Strong at Cornell