About

Prologue

I am a history instructor at Kilgore College in East Texas. I am happiest when I’m in the classroom and sharing my deep love for the past with students. To read more about my teaching philosophy and how I continue to evolve as an instructor, see my teaching page.

In addition to pedagogy, I am passionate about research. I obtained my PhD in 2017 at Texas Christian University in the Department of History. I studied twentieth-century American history under Dr. Rebecca Sharpless.  During my time at TCU, where I also earned my master’s degree in 2012, I focused my scholarly work on the intersection between gender, race, class, and entrepreneurship. Specifically, I study how these themes collide in the Sunbelt after World War II. My forthcoming manuscript analyzes female business owners in Houston from 1945 to 1977. I contend that business ownership allowed post-World War II American women an option to the traditional choices of working in a low-paying pink-collar job or attending solely to domestic responsibilities.

I’m a native of Deep East Texas from a little one-red light town: Huntington.  My master’s thesis explored gender, race, and labor in company-owned towns, and my second research project will hopefully expand upon that work in some way.  If I’m not in the classroom, I am an avid baker, gardener, dog-lover, and voracious reader. I live in Longview with my husband, Travis, and our dogs, Atticus and Huckleberry.