I was born in Columbus, Georgia, while my father was in the US Army and frequently moved to other duty stations until he retired when I was eight years old. We relocated to Seattle, Washington. I attended the University of Washington and earned Bachelor's Degrees in Political Science, Sociology, and Social Welfare and a Master’s Degree in Social Work.

My passion is social justice. My activism comes from my father and paternal grandfather. Both instilled in me the need to do more than just talk about injustices. They taught me to do something about the needs of others. Growing up, I wanted to be a social worker because I felt that I could have a greater impact.

After a positive career as a social worker, I began to explore education as a new career. I learned that the traditional way of teaching had evolved, and I was interested in learning about the changes and wanted to be a part of the new educational environment. I enrolled in a certificate program in eLearning Design and Development at the University of Washington. I completed the program and was hired by my current employer as an eLearning designer and program manager. I’ve enjoyed building eLearning courses and managing several programs for our clients but felt that I was missing pieces of eLearning design and development. I became proficient at building courses using several eLearning tools but did not have the foundation of instructional design.

To understand the why behind what I was building, I earned a Master’s Degree in Learning Design and Technology from Purdue University.

My curiosity about evaluation has grown since earning my MSEd, and I wanted to understand why organizations find evaluation so difficult. To get the answers, I decided to earn a Ph.D. in Learning Design and Technology from the University of Hawaii. I defended my dissertation in November 2024 at the Univesity of Hawaii on why organizations value and implement the evaluation of the transfer of training and how organizations use technology to collect, store, and analyze transfer-related data.