Welcome! I am currently a Masters student in the Applied Animal Behavior and Welfare program at Virginia Tech, and run See Spot Play.

Previously, I was Associate Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Theology and Philosophy at Mount Mary University. Previously I was Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Siena College from 2014-2017. My primary research interests are in 20th Century German philosophy, philosophy of art, and philosophy of play, focusing especially on the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Eugen Fink. My recent book, A Hermeneutics of Poetic Education: The Play of the In-Between, develops an account of contemporary poetic education in response to the accounts of aesthetic education in 17th and 18th Century German thought. Critically engaging the works of Eugen Fink, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Paul Celan, this book argues that poetry and play call for a particular stance in the world and with others. Similar research projects focus on Fink’s attempt to understand the world not metaphysically but cosmologically as well as the human both in relation to her finitude and to the world-totality. I teach courses in introduction to philosophy, critical thinking, aesthetics, ethics, logic, and the history of philosophy. In my free time, I enjoy baking, traveling, and dog training.