As a university leader and anthropologist, I work to create meaningful connections—between people and ideas, between institutions and communities, and between past and future visions of the public good.
Educational Leadership
At the Honors College, I lead with the belief that education should cultivate more than individual achievement—it should nurture ethical leadership, civic responsibility, and imaginative problem-solving. Under my leadership, the College has grown to serve over 500 students across all undergraduate colleges and majors. We’ve expanded scholarship access, integrated co-curricular experiences, and fostered partnerships that span the local and global—from regional civic initiatives to interdisciplinary challenges with national and international collaborators.
Scholarship and Inquiry
My ethnographic research explores how people navigate profound life transitions in the context of changing social, economic, and environmental conditions. I’m especially interested in the construction of personhood, place, and belonging—and in how these intersect with health, labor, and migration.
I’ve conducted research in the United States and Southeast Asia, including work as a Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia, where I studied how migrants forged community and identity in agrarian settlements. In the Appalachian region, my work focuses on postindustrial migration, intentional communities, and grassroots resilience. My recent collaborative project, I’m Afraid of That Water, brings together over fifty community members and scholars to document the lived aftermath of a major chemical spill—and the broader crises of trust, infrastructure, and environmental justice it reveals.
Grounded in Story
My approach is personal. I was born into a family of coal miners and grew up in a context shaped by migration, hard work, and adaptation. That background fuels both my scholarly curiosity and my administrative purpose. I see anthropology and honors education as ways of telling better stories—about who we are, what we value, and how we might live together differently.