2020
Launched Hermione Granger’s Presidential Campaign with the Harry Potter Alliance after six months of strategy development, gathering input from community members and partners, and resource building.
2019
Was on the launch team for Novelly, a reading app encouraging civic engagement and dialogue in 13-16 year olds. I wrote the app’s curriculum and provided strategic direction.
2019
Lived in Tokyo for a month because I’d always wanted to. Climbed all the way to the top of Mt. Inari. Became obsessed with both Ito-En green tea and Gudetama.
2018
Was a fellow in The Coaching Fellowship for young professional women doing good in the world.
2017
Started pottery classes, an excellent practice in reconnecting with a form of media that gets under your fingernails. At this point I can make what I intend to make about 50% of the time, and the other 50% of the time what I make is a surprise even to me, and that’s good, too.
2016
Grad school finally wore off and I started writing creatively again. I’ve now written TWO novels! I’m in fact continually writing these novels! Revision is where we are reborn, children. I’ve also written a few zines.
2016
I began work on the Granger Leadership Academy, an immersive hero training academy for the real world. GLA is the world’s only conference for fan activists, and has developed a little fandom all its own. GLA alumni are some of the most fantastic humans ever.
2015
Gave my first Ignite Talk. I was so nervous I mostly blacked out and don’t remember any part of speaking, but let the video record show that my zombie joke was grossly underappreciated. I would later be redeemed when I did it again in 2019 — no zombie jokes in that one, but I do remember actually speaking! What a difference four years makes.
2015
Graduated with a M.S. in Educational Technology from the University of Arizona. I focused a lot of my study on instructional design and engagement design, and had to google how to wear my special Master’s cape correctly.
2014
Started full time with the Harry Potter Alliance. Made lots of jokes about finally getting my Hogwarts letter. After two years as Chapters Director I was promoted to Director of Leadership and Education, a role wherein I’ve guided the organization’s approach to training and program engagement. Before you ask: Hufflepuff.
2013
Worked as a Communications Coordinator for the University of Arizona Office of Admissions, which mostly means that I learned how to develop social media strategy, managed a call center, and spent a lot of time cursing at a database. In my 1 1/2 years there I increased student call center productivity through student-centered management and gamification, started a student social media internship, and radically changed the department’s perspective on student worker training by suggesting that it could be…fun. When I left my manager told me “I will never think of student training the same way because of you.”
2013
Graduated with a B.S. in Family Studies and Human Development with a concentration in Leadership Studies and Practice from the University of Arizona. While there I did just about every leadership program they offered (as mentioned, I’m a Virgo) and took on student leadership roles in workshop facilitation, social justice camps, and national conferences. I learned an incredible amount as both a student and a teacher — but I also began to see how often the status quo for leadership instruction did not make it inviting or sustainable to the vast majority of students. I started to think a lot about how if the goal of leadership instruction is social change it must be accessible in design.
2009
Developed and launched my own browser-based virtual pet game (you probably know Neopets — it was not Neopets). The online pet game world was full of ups and downs: on the one hand I experienced truly meaningful relationships with strangers on the internet; on the other hand, children on the internet called me a “meany poo poo head.” Alas, even virtual pets are not immortal, but I learned a lot about online community and digital storytelling.
1990
Hello planet Earth, it’s me, ya girl! I’m a Virgo, and was born and raised in the Sonoran Desert.