I have always believed that a successful student is evaluative, creative, articulate, and integrative. When students are given the opportunity to draw upon and further develop these attributes they flourish, both within and beyond their academic lives. My philosophy of teaching is based on providing an atmosphere where such opportunities exist. Furthermore, I believe in conveying the information that I am presenting in an interactive and multidimensional manner; this involves using teaching approaches that allow knowledge to come across on visual, auditory, and kinesthetic levels. I find that students are more successful at acquiring knowledge when they are allowed to access information through many avenues (rather than in just one way).

As a researcher, I am interested in applying my knowledge of molecular systematic techniques to uncover the genealogical relationships that exist among groups of organisms and to understand how they and their traits may have evolved. The focus of my doctoral work was to understand the molecular genetics and the evolution of a group of marine animals known as polychaetes. Polychaetes, also known as seaworms, are interesting to me because of the diversity they display in terms of morphology, ecology, and reproductive behavior. By understanding how various groups of seaworms are related to one another, I can work to understand how their traits may have evolved.

Here at Mesa State College, my work in systematics and evolution has expanded beyond seaworms. For instance, my collaboration with Dr. Tony Schountz (an immunologist) has enabled me to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on the immunogenetics of the deer mouse. My collaboration with Dr. Walt Kelley (one of our botanists) and Dr. Lee Dyer (a tropical ecologist at Tulane University) is leading to a better understanding of how the chemistry, ant relationships, and morphology of a select group of plants within the genus Piper may have evolved.