Welcome to my Education page! Below, you will find more
information about each of the programs of study I have undertaken, and
the advisors I have worked with.
Program: Quantitative Methods in Education // Concentration: Statistics Education
After being asked to redesign an introductory statistics course (GWU HSCI 2117; see my teaching for more), I sought to make evidence-based decisions and thus began searching the statistics education literature. This search quickly led me to Dr. Joan Garfield, Dr. Robert delMas (Bob), and Dr. Andrew Zieffler (Andy) at the University of Minnesota. After meeting Bob, Andy, and some of their current and former students during a visit to Minneapolis, I decided to study statistics education under their direction.
My early milestone work focused on psychometric analyses of the Comprehensive Assessment of Outcomes in Statistics (CAOS). I then shifted to studying students’ statistical thinking for my dissertation, especially their understanding of null models.
Program: Psychological Foundations of Education // Concentration: Learning and Cognition
While earning my PhD, I began taking courses from faculty in the Psychological Foundations of Education program in the Department of Educational Psychology, focusing on courses such as Mathematical Cognition, Computational Thinking, and Advanced Cognition.
I soon began working with Dr. Sashank Varma and Dr. Jeffery Bye on projects at the intersection of mathematical cognition and statistics education. I also began working with Dr. David DeLiema on projects at the intersection of the learning sciences and statistics education (see my research for more). To improve my knowledge and skills in the cognitive and learning sciences, I began formal study under the direction of Dr. Jeffery Bye and Dr. David DeLiema.
My masters paper explored the cognitive foundations of probability underlying statistical reasoning and thinking, specifically in the processing, encoding, and retrieval of semantic and numerical information when presented as p-values.
While working for the US Census Bureau, I pursued an MS in Statistics from the George Washington University as a part-time student. My coursework primarily focused on modern data analysis and applied statistics, featuring courses such as Data Mining, Modern Theory of Sample Surveys, and Legal Statistics.
As a student, I primarly worked with projects in legal statistics with Dr. Joseph L. Gastwirth and projects in data mining with Dr. Rida Moustafa.
Concentration: Pure Mathematics // Second Major: Economics // Minor: Spanish
Even as a young child I always loved numbers and mathematics came easy. As an undergraduate student, I fell in love with theoretical mathematics. I particularly loved taking Abstract Algebra and Number Theory.
Along the way I also picked up a double major in Economics, spent some time as pre-med (and obtained an EMT-B and CPR Instructor license along the way), and also minored in Spanish (and spent a summer in Granada, Spain).