I grew up in a small rural southern Minnesota community and did my undergraduate work at Hamline University in St. Paul. At Hamline, I was a double major in history/social studies and secondary education, and also played on the football team. Hamline's education program was focused on urban education and all of our experiences took place in the Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools.

IIt was during this time that I found my niche as a teacher while student-teaching and then subbing at Sanford Middle School in Minneapolis, and continued developing my practice at Mississippi Heights Middle School in the St. Cloud, Minnesota area. While at Mississippi Heights, I taught primarily American History and coached varsity football and track.

In the fall of 2000, I arrived at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a master’s student in Educational Technologies and Communications and also supervised student teachers for the elementary and middle school teacher education program. Following completion of my masters, I took a position at Cooperative Educational Services Agency 5 as a Technology and Curriculum Professional Development Specialist working with teachers in public school districts, helping them to write curriculum and integrate technology into their instructional practices.

In the fall of 2002 I returned to UW-Madison and started the doctoral program in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on social studies education and educational technologies. In addition, I supervised secondary social studies student teachers and taught social studies methods classes.

My dissertation research examined how two teachers utilized film and other historical sources and media in order to teach history. In addition, I worked on two other major research projects with my advisor, Diana Hess. These projects examined how social studies curriculum and textbooks represented the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks and terrorism more generally, and a project that examined the impact of curriculum that emphasized the discussion of controversial issues on students’ political participation and knowledge.