APPOINTMENTS

Graduate Student Rearcher, University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE)

Reserach Fellow, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

PROFESSIONAL HISTORY

University of Pittsburgh, Candidate for Ph.D. in Learning Sciences and Policy, Fall 2009-Present

Fourth Grade Teacher, Hannah Senesh Community Day School, Brooklyn, New York, 2007-2009

Exhibitions and Programs Consultant, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, 2008

Curriculum Developer/Instructor, American Museum of Natural History, New York City, 2007

Curriculum Developer & Design Educator, Center for Architecture Foundation, New York City, 2006-2009

Manager of School and Family Programs, South Street Seaport Museum, New York City, 2006-2007

Cultural Programs Educator, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Brooklyn, New York, 2004-2006

Teaching Assistant, Child Development, Bank Street Graduate School of Education, 2006

Exhibitions Assistant, Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, New York 2002-2003

New York City Museum Educators Roundtable, Member, 2004-2009

American Association of Museums, Member, 2004-Present

EdCom (American Association of Museums, Committee on Education), Member, 2004-Present

MSEd in Childhood Education and Museum Education, Bank Street Graduate School of Education, 2006

B.A., Jewish Studies; B.A., Religion, Vassar College, 2001

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My research considers museums as learning organizations. Specifically, I am interested in the ways in which learning sciences theory and research can most powerfully inform the process of exhibition design in museums; as well how the field can influence the design of informal learning experiences for authentic disciplinary learning. I am particularly interested in the discipline of art and the organizational conceptions of learning in art museums. Guiding questions include, what are the unique affordances of museums for learning? How do museums become consequential contexts of learning for visitors? How is visitor learning supported by museums as organizations?

CURRENT PROJECTS

Currently, I am involved in an ethnographic study in and with a local museum that explores the ways in which learning sciences research, when conducted in collaboration with the process of exhibition design, can provoke an organizational conversation about learning. I am the UPCLOSE Research Fellow at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh where I work closely with the museum in its ongoing efforts to facilitate meaningful museum experiences for visitors. In addition, I am currently engaged in an IMLS funded project, in partnership with the four major art museums of Pittsburgh, which explores conceptions of learning and visitor experience in the context of art museums. Finally, I am involved in the development of valid and scalable assessment systems that will measure children’s activated engagement in science learning and inquiry in and outside of school.