Director of Social Work, Chair of Sociology and Criminal Justice

什么风把你吹到曼彻斯特来了?

“I had been teaching social work at a different college for a couple years before coming to 曼彻斯特 and when the position opened up at 曼彻斯特 there were two things that brought me here. 一是学校的使命, 在这里的人, and the very authentic way in which everybody I met here was working very hard to carry out that mission. The values of our institution permeated throughout the day I interviewed here. The staff and the friends that I had here – just to hear them talk about 曼彻斯特… I could tell there was just something very different about 曼彻斯特. 和, the values here align perfectly with my personal values in a way that I had not experienced at previous employers. 所以，我想参与其中. I wanted to – I felt like I was going to be a better person by working here. The other thing that brought me to 曼彻斯特 is the fact that my family has an old homestead in Wabash County and it had always been my dream to purchase that, 住在那里, 把它修好，重新装修. So getting – joining the faculty at 曼彻斯特 made that very possible. 在这里任教两年之后, 我和我的搭档搬到了宅基地, 把它修好, got it listed on the national register of historic places—we brought it back to life and 住在那里.”

是什么让你对社会工作感兴趣的?

“It’s mission as well as its alignment with my own personal values. 具体来说，它强调社会正义. Working to end all types of oppression and challenge discrimination and work toward equality – that’s something that’s explicitly part of social work’s mission that is not necessarily part of the mission that other helping professions have. So that’s why I chose social work as opposed to some other helping professions.”

Are you working on any research or special projects?

“I’m still hoping to publish an article or two out of my dissertation which was on the lived experiences of transgender adults living in the Midwest. I’ve published one article from that but I’d still like to publish some more in the next couple of years. But I’m working on some other projects with Katy Gray Brown and 和rew Duffy, who has been an adjunct here off-and-on in the last few years. The project is on conflict transformation curriculum for Parkview health systems, so Parkview can train all their people on what’s basically a 曼彻斯特 model of conflict resolution.”

你最喜欢教什么课?

“我喜欢教我教的所有课程. I teach both social work classes and gender studies courses, and I like them both a lot for different reasons. 在性别研究中, 我在一年级的LGBT问题研讨会上授课, 我教性别研究入门, 我教酷儿研究导论. I love teaching all of those because they – the content in those courses can just sometimes blow people’s minds – like the idea that sex and gender aren’t the same thing. 所以，我喜欢教性别研究课程. Another reason I really love teaching the FYS on LGBT issues and introduction to queer studies is because when I was in college and coming out and struggling with my own identity and my own internalized homophobia, um, 我需要这样的课程. Having classes like that at the time would have made my life so much easier and saved me a lot of heartache and pain. 和, so, I want to be the gay professor that I needed when I was in college that I didn’t have.”

你在校园里都参加什么活动?

“I am one of two faculty advisors for United Sexualities and Genders, 我是社会服务俱乐部的指导老师, and I do the Celebrating Diversity Workshops that are offered at least once a semester. 我也是教职员执行委员会的成员, 我是学术管理委员会的成员, 我是多元化包容委员会的成员, 性别研究委员会, the 第九条 team – I have a lot of committee assignments.”

你有参加校外活动吗?

“In the community I’m on three boards of directors – the Bowen Center, the Roann Public 图书馆 (the library that my great-great-grandmother founded), and I’m on the board of an organization called Roann’s 社区 Heritage, 哪个是历史保护组织.”

What is your favorite thing about Northeast Indiana/韦恩堡?

“I love that my name is on the big building downtown. 如果你在Mainview, look across the street to the building with the steeple-shaped tower on top and you’ll see “Burdge”. I’m sure I’m related to that person, but I’ve never been able to connect the dots. 我喜欢住得离家人近. I like living in the country and having the freedom that comes with rural living but also being in close enough proximity to urban areas and “vacationing” to Indy, 韦恩堡, 芝加哥——像那样的地方. But I like living where I can see the sunset and the stars and where my dogs can run around freely in the yard.”

你的爱好和兴趣是什么?

“好狗. We have two dogs: a border collie and an Australian shepherd mix. They’re like our kids and we love them like crazy. 我们还有两匹马. 我和我的搭档玛莎喜欢看电影, 我们喜欢在夏天露营, we like to travel – we’ve traveled pretty extensively in the U.S. 和全球. 我最喜欢的地方之一是爱尔兰. I’ve been there twice – once in the north and once in the epublic. 我也喜欢阿姆斯特丹——我去过两次. My whole family took a big trip to Alaska two years ago and that was amazing.”

What is something most people don’t know about you?

“Most people don’t know that I started college as a saxophone major. The summer before my junior year I changed my major to psychology, 所以我拿到了心理学学士学位. After that, I got my masters and doctorate in social work. But yeah – I started at IU with a major in saxophone.”