I have earned a BA in Middle Grades Education from Northern Kentucky University, an MA in Educational Psychology: Gifted and Talented Education from the University of Connecticut, an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the University of the Cumberlands, and an Educational Specialist (EdS) degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where my work focuses on the underidentification of low-income gifted and talented students.

My professional identity is shaped by early comparative education experiences studying schools in the United States, Ireland, and Mexico, as well as by research with the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, which has given me a deep understanding of how different systems perceive and respond to gifted and neurodivergent learners. My work is further informed by clinical mental health training and years of teaching and course design focused on critical issues in education, all of which ground my practice in rigorous research, developmental psychology, and attention to how school and social contexts shape giftedness, disability, and identity.

My clinical practice is neuro‑informed, integrating existential and Gestalt psychotherapy with a neurodiversity‑affirming, critical disability lens, and all of her services are rooted in individualized, psychoeducation‑based work that meets clients where they are. I specialize in supporting gifted and 2e neurodivergent clients with neurodevelopmental and learning disorders, late‑diagnosis experiences, and those from underrepresented populations, with a particular emphasis on helping them make sense of their histories across school, family, and community systems.

​Beyond direct service, I am deeply engaged in advocacy and scholarship to make gifted and neurodivergent spaces more equitable and affirming. I contribute as a peer reviewer and grant evaluator for education and research initiatives, examining work on counseling and human development, school and social contexts, adolescence and youth, curriculum, and disability studies, especially as these areas impact economically disadvantaged, multilingual, disabled, gifted, and twice‑exceptional learners.