Teaching (Gallaudet University)

Courses taught:

• BUS 101: Introduction to Business

• BUS 221: Introduction to Marketing

• BUS 321: Advertising and Branding

• BUS 322: New Product Development

• BUS 351: Business Finance

• BUS 421: Marketing Research

• BUS 422: Marketing Strategy

• BUS 492: Senior Capstone

My Teaching Philosophy:

My philosophy in teaching is fairly straightforward: apply real-world content to what is being taught in the classroom, to enhance textbook material. In business and especially in marketing, there are many concepts and theories that must be taught, yet they are hard to comprehend without bringing in examples from actual events. My students often tell me that the best part of my lectures are discussing events of the week at the beginning of almost every class session, especially in the context of what is being taught in class that week.

Prior to teaching at Gallaudet, I was in the corporate world for almost 20 years, first at Thomson West (part of Thomson Reuters), BCD WorldTravel, and finally American Express. I started out in finance after business school, then transitioned into marketing. After the Great Recession of 2009, I went into private consulting, advising businesses on how to market themselves to consumers with disabilities. As someone born profoundly deaf, and with my feet in both the majority non-disabled culture and Deaf culture, I bring unique experiences on working in the corporate world, with its attendant accessibility challenges for deaf and hard-of-hearing employees both on a structural and informal level. My students, most of whom are also deaf or hard-of-hearing, also have these similar challenges when applying for jobs after college, so I often share my experiences with them and play an advisory role in their career planning and search strategies as they approach the end of their college studies.