I am the Assistant Professor of Costume Design at Purdue University and a professional costume designer and crafts artisan, and have worked for The Santa Fe Opera, American Players Theatre, Playhouse on the Square, The Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre, Theatre Memphis, and Oklahoma Repertory Theatre, among others. My designs and craft work span from opera to drama, musical theatre to children’s theatre, and from commercial to traditional craftwork. I have also taught and designed at The University of Tulsa, Oklahoma City University, and Millikin University.

As a designer and craftsperson, my research leans heavily on practice-based methodologies. Combining material culture studies, aesthetic theory, and object theory, I construct costumes in order to examine the architecture and energy created in the space between the body and the costume. My dissertation project explores the costumes of Sonia Biacchi as a liminal art form that both creates and binds space and movement. Experimentation with material agency, space, and the orbit beyond the traditional form is imperative to my pedagogical approach for young theatre designers. 

I am also dedicated to mentorship and the study of theatre pedagogy. My work with USITT and KCACTF highlights this, integrating hands-on experiences with a deeper level of aesthetic research constructed outside of the production process.  I am the Secretary for the Board of Directors for the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) and present regularly for The Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), The American Costume Association (ATCA), USITT, SETC’s Theatre Symposium, and the Kennedy Center for American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF). I also serve as the Associate Editor for Education for the journal Theatre Design and Technology (TD&T). I am involved with Critical Costume and the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) and have a chapter published in the book Theatre Artisans and Their Craft: The Allied Arts. I am the editor for ReFashioned Pedagogies: New Approaches to Decolonizing Fashion History and Period Styles.

BA, Theatre Design and BA, English; The University of the South at Sewanee

MFA, Theatre Design (Scenery and Costume); The University of Memphis

PhD Candidate, Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies; The University of Wisconsin at Madison