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CURRICULUM VITAE
Education
PHD THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS
Literature, expected graduation 2024
ALM HARVARD UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SCHOOL
Creative Writing and Literature, March 2021
Dean’s List Academic Achievement Award
Thesis: “The Four Selves: Using Character Identity as an Engine for Plot”
Advisor: Catherine Eaton Thesis Project: Dub City, TV series Nominated for the Thesis Prize
BA STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY
August 2006
First Major: Communications
Second Major in Spanish
Professional Training
SOCIAL JUSTICE CERTIFICATE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SCHOOL,
JANUARY 2021
This liberal arts graduate certificate, teaches core themes of social justice, including philosophy, economics, the environment, religion, politics, ethics, sociology, and law and focuses on the fights for justice of historically disenfranchised groups.
TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CERTIFICATION,
2014
Received English Grammar Endorsement, Endorsement for Young learners, and Endorsement for Adult learners. Certification internationally recognized
Teaching Experience
GRADUATE TEACHING ASSOCIATE
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS
August 2021-Present
Teaching undergraduate students in a specific field of expertise
Developing and managing the class syllabus and ensuring that the syllabus meets department and college standards
Planning and creating lectures, in-class discussions, and assignments
Grading assigned papers, quizzes, and exams
Assessing grades for students based on participation, performance in class, assignments, and examinations
Reporting student learning outcomes, class reviews, and analyzing student data
Collaborating with colleagues on course curriculum
Advising students on how to be successful and achieve goals
Participating in professional development activities
PRIVATE INSTRUCTOR
ALL A GRAY AREA
December 2013-Present
Assess the needs and strengths of each student
Develop specialized lesson plans to teach according to the needs of each student
Provide conversation practice
Provide safe learning environment
Private Writing Tutor, Middle-High School
Assess the lessons given
Provide conversation and listening practice
Develop lessons to prepare student for various English proficiency tests
DOCENTE DE IDIOMAS
UNIVERSIDAD DE SERGIO ARBOLEDA, BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA
April 2016-November 2017
Create specialized curriculum for Business English students
Create fun and exciting grammar lessons and activities for university
students
Create an environment for students that teaches and enforces skills for
success in professional world
Assess the needs and strengths of the class
Develop specialized lesson plans
Provide listening and conversation practice
Provide safe learning environment for students to practice new skills
Publications
BOOKS
Mosaic: Pieces in Poetry, 2015
Echoes of the Struggle, 2017
Emotional Maze, 2017
Echoes of the Struggle Tour Guide, 2018
Unity, Equality, Accountability: The Echoes Blog Anthology, 2018
CONTRIBUTIONS
Garvin, Kerry., McKetta, Elisabeth., What Doesn’t Kill Her: Women’s Stories of Resilience, 2021
“My Fire, My Crown,”
CD
Handle This, 2010
Productions
"THE ORIGIN OF FREEDOM"
2023
Ten-minute short play commissioned by Bishop Arts Theater Center.
In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia with a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.
This one-act festival features 8 commissions by local and national playwrights that weave together stories that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America.
#VOICED,
FULL PRODUCTION
2023
For the seniors at Lamont Private School, there’s nothing but blue skies ahead as they prepare to head to college — that is until a mass shooting at a nearby school hits a little too close to home. With only a semester left until graduation, six student journalists explore the tragedy only to find that their relationships with issues like parental pressure, racism, immigration, religion, and mental health may affect their ability to make positive change. Tired of being silenced, these six friends have to decide if it's worth the sacrifice to move from reporting the news to creating it, risking their reputation and future in order to finally speak out about issues that really matter to them.
RAGE
2022
Rage is a new one-act play that engages the question, “Why weren’t there more rebellions by Black Americans?” This collection of staged monologues looks at this question through the eyes of Black women throughout history, suggesting that there is more than one way to rebel. Rage presents lesser-known historical events from 1842 to present and imagines the various reactions and involvement of Black women at these points in time.
This show is dedicated to re-voicing the stories of Black women as mothers, daughters, wives, and friends in their moments of resistance against dehumanization and degradation. Rage showcases the passion, fear, love, anger, and determination Black women have carried with them since they were brought to this land by allowing each woman to stand in her truth, uninterrupted and unburdened by politeness.
#VOICED
WORKSHOP
2019
In the aftermath of yet another school shooting, six high school senior journalists organize a march to share their voices only to find that the social issues outside of their cozy high school atmosphere run just as deep in their own friend group. #voiced is a play about social consciousness in the next generation.
Creative Works
"The Freedom of Memory," short memory, 2022
"A Walk in the Park," short story, 2021
"Progeny," short story, 2022
"The Godmother," short play, 2021
"The Ancestor," monologue, 2021
"Terrance," monologue, 2021
“Burden of Proof,” monologue, 2020
We, Kin, screenplay 2020
Rage, stage play, 2020
*Dub City, teleplay-series, 2020
“Blowing Smoke,” short story, 2019
Uprising, short film, 2019
#voiced, stage play 2019
Echoes, screenplay, 2019
“The Cost of Freedom,” short story, 2018 “Our New Life,” short story, 2018
“Big City Secrets,” short story, 2018
Film Experience
FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, NAIL GUN, SHORT FILM
2021
*Best Film, Rack Focus Film Festival
FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, PURE HANDS, SHORT FILM
2020
48-Hour Film Fest-Dallas
Nominations: Best in Dallas, Best Directing, Best Writing, Best Acting, *Best Use of Character, Best Use of Prop
FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, CATFEST, SHORT FILM
2019
FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, RED DOTS, SHORT FILM
2019
*Best Comedy Short
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT, FIRST ASSISTANT CAMERA, SERVICE ANIMAL
2019
*Honourable Mention, London Worldwide Comedy Short Film Festival
Courses
BLACK NARRATIVES
2020
Commissioned by: Lake Placid Center for the Arts
This 4-week class explores art forms such as literature, television, art and song in order to listen to Black narratives. Focusing on characters, stories, and word choice, the class reads classic works from authors such as Toni Morrison and James Baldwin to the modern Brit Bennett and Glory Edim and Jacqueline Woodson; compares TV shows like Good Times, The Cosby Show, Black-ish, Dear White People, or Woke; discusses traditional and modern visual artists on Social Media; and contrasts songs from Nina Simone and NWA and various artists on the Spotify Black Lives Matter Playlist.
The class will look at the historical and political context surrounding these art forms, the message itself, the need for the message and the impact of the message on our communities at large. The goal is for audiences to develop a broader artistic palette that may provide insight into parallel experiences that would otherwise go unseen. By doing so, the hope is that we all come to see Black art as simply.
BLACK RADICALISM IN LITERATURE
2020
This course thinks about the history and development of African-American ideas about race and racial pride, violence, exploitation, racism, sexism, imperialism, and colonization, as well as freedom, hope, love, and justice. Key topics include Black anti-slavery and anti-imperialism, Black Marxism; the origin and development of Black feminism, intersectionality, reparations, respectability politics, and the roles religion and church play with these ideas.
The class will ask a series of questions with each text. How and when was it published? Why might the text be considered radical for its time? What prompted the text? What was the text designed to achieve? How was it designed to achieve that? Was it affective and how? To whom was the text addressed? If addressed to more than one audience, does the message change with the audience? How does the text imagine Black people, Black men, and Black women? How does it imagine the Black community? How does it imagine justice and freedom? What contradictions can be found amongst these answers? What impact do these answers have on the Black, female, and the U.S. society as a whole?
COLORISM IN THE BLACK US-IAN COMMUNITY
2020
This three-class course is based on research, culminating in the paper “Black US-ian Identity Dilemma.” It explores the correlation between pigmentocracy and the racial self-identification of Black USians on the United States census. Black-USian identity in the U.S. has been shaped largely by the perception of Black people under the white gaze. The 1890 census instructed census workers to identify — simply by looking — the amount of Black ancestry a person has by labeling them “quadroon,” “octaroon,” etc. But in 1896, the Plessy v. Ferguson decision stipulated any amount of Black ancestry made you Black. With the establishment of both pigmentocracy and hypodescent, over time, the Black community absorbed the ideology of both. But now that those with Black ancestry have the autonomy to identify ourselves, how do we do so? How do we identify Blackness in others, and what part does colorism play in that process? Do hypodescent and colorism impact how Black USians identify on the U.S. Census?
SPANISH 1
2015, 2021
Commissioned by: St. Luke Community United Methodist Church
This course is a continuing education, first-level Spanish course. It is an introductory course intended for students with little or no knowledge of the language. Its aim is to present essential vocabulary and grammar, and to develop the pronunciation, listening, reading, and writing skills necessary for basic communication and comprehension. Customs and cultural insights are also presented.
Conferences
RICE UNIVERSITY
February 2022
“The Problematic Relationship between Aesthetics and Black Theater,” End of English Conference, Rice University
Presentations
HARVARD UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SCHOOL
December 2020
Paper Presentation, “For Better or Worse: The precarious marriage of respectability politics and Black female radicalism in 1890-1910,” Riots, Strikes, and Conspiracies in American History
HARVARD UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SCHOOL
May 2020
Paper Presentation, “Black US-ian Identity Dilemma,” Race in a Polarized America
HARVARD UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SCHOOL
December 2019
Paper Presentation, “The Gospelizing of Black Pride: The Many Movements of the Phrase ‘Young, Gifted and Black,’” Race, Gender, & Sexuality in U.S. Popular Music
HARVARD UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SCHOOL
June 2019
Short-Story Reading, “The Cost of Freedom,” The Creative Writing Residency: Student Readings, Harvard University