In my current position as a full-time Professorial Lecturer at American University (August 2018 - present), I pursue inclusive excellence in my pedagogical practices by creating brave spaces in my classrooms and applying evidence-based active learning tools. I work autonomously and collaboratively to teach courses in the Introductory Biology sequence, as well as other majors and non-majors courses. Prior to this appointment, I honed these skills as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Trinity University (2016-2018) and as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Tulane University, where I earned two awards for Excellence in Graduate Teaching. I value mentorship and outreach as tools for breaking down perceived barriers in STEM and have co-authored successful grants with student colleagues while actively mentoring their research training. Additionally, through the Earthwatch Institute, I taught and mentored teams of students and K-12 teachers in field immersion expeditions. My work with these community scientists has had measurable effects on student mastery of scientific processes and cascading effects in K-12 classrooms (Hazen and Fox 2011).