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Biography

Originally from Baltimore, I have lived in upstate New York for most of my adult life (except for brief stints in Denver, Las Vegas, and Rijeka, Croatia). I enjoy spending time with my family—including my spouse and two daughters—and friends, traveling, and running.

�Ӱ���̳ Background

Ph.D., M.A. - University of Rochester
A.B. - Vassar College

Courses Taught

• HIST221 - America, 1877-present
• HIST321 - History of Public Health in America
• HIST327 - History of Women and Gender in America
• HIST329 - History of the American Family
• HIST338 - Women, Gender, and Science in American History
• HIST362 - Public History
• HSS/SD480 - Major Research Seminar
• UNIV190 - The Clarkson Seminar

Research Interests

My research and writings focus on the history of women, gender, and the engineering, scientific, and medical professions in the United States. I am also an oral historian who sees my mission as amplifying people's stories and using history to make a difference. I believe that history matters—that learning about the past helps us to understand current challenges and to make more informed decisions about the future. I share my research in varied media outlets to reach a wide audience.

Awards

• Co-Principal Investigator: (2019-2024)
• Clarkson Distinction in Faculty Mentoring for Research and Scholarship Award; recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to faculty mentoring in research and scholarship by actively assisting pre-tenure and mid-career faculty in developing their careers (2022)
• ,
• Principal Investigator: (2017-2020)
• �Ӱ���̳’s Distinguished Teaching Award (2013)
• , U.S. State Department, University of Rijeka, Croatia (2012)
• �Ӱ���̳’s New Teacher Award (2000)

Publications

My current research, inspired by my teaching at a technological university and funded by the , investigates the careers and lives of a varied group of American women engineers who graduated from college in the 1970s, a time when a small but growing cohort of women entered the profession. I am writing a book on this subject. provides an introduction to my work.

As part of this research, with filmmaker Zac Miller, I have produced a short documentary and three educational videos featuring six trailblazing women engineers. These resources are available for free.

, which received an Award of Merit in The Impact DOCS Competition, is a short documentary (19:18 minutes) aimed at adults and older high school students of all interests and backgrounds. It tells the stories of six trailblazing women engineers as they share their experiences overcoming obstacles and paving the way for the next generation. Their stories help us to understand how individual women in engineering navigated the challenges they encountered, and how institutions might work to address those challenges.

Inspire! is a collection of three educational videos with an accompanying discussion guide that will empower middle school and early high school girls to explore careers in STEM. All three videos are beneficial for young people regardless of gender identification.

• (4:40 minutes)
• (3:39 minutes)
• (3:55 minutes)
• Discussion guide for K-12 teachers, guidance counselors, Scout leaders, Robotics advisors, etc.

The three educational videos and documentary were official selections at the Sigma Xi (The Scientific Research Honor Society) STEM Art and Film Festival.

My first book, (Ohio State University Press) and , which was named an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice, examined the emergence of American nurse-midwifery, an occupation that developed in the 1920s and involved nurses who took advanced training in midwifery. I argue that nurse-midwives challenged what scholars have called the “male medical model” of childbirth, but the cost of the compromises they made to survive was that nurse-midwifery did not become the kind of independent, autonomous profession it might have been.