Briefly describe what you do:

As a Comms Specialist, I am constantly gathering intel on what students are researching, how students are feeling about that research (the impediments they face and what we, as educators, can be doing better to support them), how students are feeling about their L&S and UW–Madison experience, what faculty is researching, and what faculty is planning for students.

I wear many hats: writer, editor, translator of complex research, web designer, graphic designer, photographer, videographer, fundraiser, and marketer—each has the goal of amplifying the many perspectives of the three units I work for: AfAm, Chicla, and AsAm.

What is the coolest, most interesting, or rewarding project you have worked on at UW–Madison?

In the summer of 2025, I was hired (in addition to working with AfAm) to create for The SoulFolk Collective (SoCo), the first research lab in the Department of African American Studies. I helped copy edit content for their first website, and then I created (and now maintain) the website. The lab needed a logo, so I ideated with lab members and the P.I., drew mockups, and eventually created variations of the logo they now have: a digital drawing of a Black Cherry tree (native to Wisconsin). I coded an interactive map for their first project on Black Geographies in Madison, providing photography support to a lab member, cutting audio recordings from oral history interviews, etc.

I help run SoCo’s social media now, continue providing support to students (we just completed a ’zine on the history of Freedom Schools), edit their monthly column for Umoja, and create imagery for conferences, flyers, and projects whenever needed.

I say this is the coolest project, although there have been many, and many still ongoing, because not only do I support and believe deeply in their goals (a more equitable State of Wisconsin that addresses racial disparities), but I am also deeply inspired by the vision of Dr. Jessica Lee Stovall, who works tirelessly to make many dreams within SoCo happen. I cannot sing her praises enough! We work very well together, understand each other’s voices and styles and goals, and she is one of the sole reasons why I love my position here at UW–Madison so much. She is a beacon to so many students. I do my best to provide her with the quality of work she deserves (and that’s rewarding in itself).

What academic staff activities have you participated in?

Academic Staff Institute, University Roundtable, Mentor/Mentee Program, L&S Community of Practice panelist

What have you learned through those experiences?

The most rewarding aspect of being on Academic Staff Assembly was our vote to cancel the university’s contract with Flock. Before I joined ASA, I learned that they were one of the groups responsible for getting paid parental leave here at UW–Madison. I want to believe in small changes, and ASA sometimes makes that small change happen in our Madison community.

What is your favorite place on campus?

Is Picnic Point technically on campus? If so, I do love to go to the very brink of the place (especially during winter when the ice freezes in thick sheets onto the bank). I always bring a notebook but can’t say I get much writing done. Instead, I stare into the body of water!

Tell us about your family:

It’s sort of just me! I have a sweet, older brother who is currently getting his Ph.D. in Physics and two lovely, supportive, but different-than-me parents back in Indiana.

Please share any hobbies you are passionate about?

I have my own photography business, but I also just love to take photographs that no one but me will find interesting. I worked at a photo lab in grad school where I really developed a dependence on color film (it’s my dream to buy a medium format camera someday). I watercolor when stressed, but can’t say I’m any good! I’ve been working on a book of poetics since 2022/2023 that has many stages of “completed”—but never so completed that I want to submit it (I’ve gotten really contented with the concept of incomprehensibility and irrelevance)! The book oscillates elegy, climate catastrophe, depression, and the exuberance and tragic and ecstasy of living.

What is the last book you read?

I finished The Argonauts, a queer book on motherhood and living, by Maggie Nelson recently. Maggie is one of those writers that says everything I’ve been thinking but don’t have the eloquence or intelligence to properly say. Like she’s living in my brain. My favorite type of writing is the kind that amalgamates personal narrative and experience with a collage of theory they’ve been reading lately. Comparative literature with lived experience? Autotheory! The book is intimate and radically loving.

Do you volunteer in the community?

I volunteer for Planned Parenthood. I got involved because of the dire situation our country currently finds itself in, a post-Roe world. When I showed up to my first volunteer shift, I expected to be amongst a hoard of other women, but I was shocked to find it was just ME and a paid staff member of PP in Madison. I think my first few shifts made me come back to earth and back into my body, as so many of the doors we knocked on were supportive, curious, and just as upset as we were. It restored some faith in my community (that is all too easy to feel frustrated with).