I am an Assistant Professor in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Portland State University, affiliate graduate faculty in Behavioral & Systems Neuroscience (BEST) at OHSU, and co-founder and Neuroscience Coordinator for the nonprofit NW Noggin.

At PSU I helped create and now supervise our innovative Interdisciplinary Neuroscience minor.

I LOVE TEACHING and exploring how networks of linked neurons and glia underlie perception, cognition and behavior. My dissertation in Behavioral Neuroscience at OHSU examined nicotine effects on spatial attention, time perception, and boredom in non-smokers. I completed this research in Dr. Barry Oken's lab.

In addition to teaching at PSU, I supervise an OHSU graduate teaching practicum, and bring extra brains and art into K-12 classrooms, houseless youth centers, coffee shops, correctional facilities, art museums and pubs. I’m fascinated by the power of art to engage students in STEM fields, and my courses and outreach efforts involve art projects, and collaboration with artists and arts institutions.

Along with artist and educator Jeff Leake, I co-founded NW Noggin (Northwest Neuroscience Outreach Group:  Growing in Networks, www.nwnoggin.org), a robust, creative, entirely volunteer driven non-profit (EIN: 81-3885713) that brings scientists, artists and students of all ages together to share their expertise, enthuse young people about science and art, share educational resources, and inform and excite the public about ongoing, taxpayer supported psychology and neuroscience research.

Since 2012, we've offered graduates and undergraduates opportunities to communicate science to more than 65,000 academic priority students in Portland, Vancouver, San Diego, Chicago, rural Oregon, rural Washington and DC public schools!

We’ve arranged free cross-disciplinary public talks informing thousands of community members about research, and trained graduates to present their work to a lay audience.

In 2016, we presented brains in DC public schools, Congress, the Obama White House, and for Neuroscience Night at the Phillips Collection! We were recognized for innovation in outreach by the Obama White House for bringing together students from many institutions and disciplines and connecting them to the broader community. We returned to the U.S. Capitol in 2017 to present at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), run a mobbed “Art of Neuroscience” booth, teach 700+ K-12 students in DC area schools and bring more neuroscience and art to Congress! In 2018 we gave the keynote address on Brain Awareness at SfN in San Diego, and brought our enthusiastic volunteers into San Diego public schools to talk research and make art. In 2019 we worked with over 500 students in Chicago, and presented at both SfN and the Society for Social Neuroscience. In 2020, 2021 and 2022 we explored virtual and hybrid pandemic outreach, returned to San Diego Public Schools and presented two global webinars with SfN. LEARN MORE: Noggin @ SfN.

You can follow our continuing all-volunteer interdisciplinary neuroscience adventures here: NOGGIN BLOGGIN.

We partner with many local and national institutions, including Portland Public Schools, p:ear houseless youth center, Portland Art Museum, Roundhouse Foundation, Oregon TRIO, Portland Alcohol Research Center (PARC), Artist Mentorship Project (AMP), Dana Foundation, ONPRC, OHSU Brain Institute, Regional Arts and Culture Council, Kúkátónón Children’s African Dance Troupe, Caldera Arts, Latino Network, BioGift, Fort George Brewery, SfN and the American Brain Coalition.

We also organize the largest student-run free music, art and interdisciplinary neuroscience celebration in the Pacific Northwest:  NOGGINFEST!

Please check out nwnoggin.org and get involved!