Q: How long have you worked at Rice?
A: Since July 2021.
Q: What is your favorite part about working for the university?
A: Being a part of a working culture that values integrity, excellence and sincerely wants to enable multidisciplinary initiatives. I specifically enjoy bringing attention to projects and programs that bridge disparate disciplines through public engagement. I think that kind of approach to collaboration — pushing through the silos of academia and the public/private dichotomy — is a critical component for both a successful learning environment and a functional society.
Q: What do you want people to know about living in Houston?
A: The art scene is just as impressive as the food scene.
Q: What do you do in your downtime?
A: In general, I’m a pretty restless person, so if I’m honest I think I avoid downtime. Yet besides the stock answers of traveling and staying active, I spend a lot of free time exploring areas of Houston and Texas I don’t know anything about. The density of the city and the immensity of the state feel like different types of wildernesses that you have to figure out how to personally map and navigate. I like the challenge of that.
Q: What’s your favorite spot on campus to show someone?
A: Outside of the Moody and Rice’s Public Art collection, my favorite thing is to get a visitor outside on Loop Road to look up at the tree canopy and recognize that they’re in an arboretum. That feeling of being encapsulated and it all being intentional and cared for is special to me. It makes everything within that tree cover feel likewise nurtured and valued by the people charged with its care.
Q: What’s the most exciting time of year for you as it relates to Rice?
A: When the fall semester starts, the campus feels fully activated again. The Moody remains open all summer and we stay busy with public programs, but I feel the specific absence of the students’ energy. It’s a good feeling to see the Moody Makerspace and Moody Student Collab come back online in full swing.
Q: What’s the one thing that makes Rice special to you?
A: If I were to reduce it down to one thing, it’s the people.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your job?
A: See all the answers above!
Q: What are your most memorable accomplishments?
A: I have a lot of proud moments that I share with my colleagues, past and present. I don’t feel like I can claim any top honor as the result of my ambitions alone. Rather I’m generally proud of the fact that I’m one of many women who pursue their calling while being an involved parent. I became a mom fairly young, while I was still in undergrad. I was lucky enough to have a lot of support, but there is no shortage of opinions about how to manage your life when you’re an unwed, young mother in the South. So I took a lot of risks — socially, culturally and professionally — to prove that pursuing an education and professional experiences did not have to be detrimental to my child.
In those early years, it took a lot of willpower to insist on being seen as an equally valuable student, capable new hire, viable manager or prospective leader. Now 21 years later, I see colleagues caring for their parents, a disabled partner or their aging bodies, and I recognize the fallacy of motherhood alone being this force that cripples your professional life. The truth is that most of us are or will be caretakers, and having a right to a satisfying, forward-moving career even while enjoying or enduring the demands of caretaking is attributable to the generations of working moms who asked for more. To be a part of that group is my most memorable accomplishment.
Q: What are your hobbies and interests outside of work?
A: I’m curious. That’s my hobby. I read a lot and love to write. I like cooking for people. I also enjoy going to dinner by myself to people-watch. I’ve tried and failed at cross-stitching, sewing and making large paper mâché heads. For a while I was binding my own books that I wrote on a typewriter and illustrated with watercolor. Then I developed a series of homemade hair perfumes inspired by the real women who were killed in Europe and Colonial America during the witch trials. I am an avid New York Times Crossworder. I ride in a krewe during Mardi Gras after years of being in a parade marching group. I will take over my daughter’s Nintendo Switch to do 2 hours of Just Dance 2019. I track where I see graffiti by TOE FLOP in my notes app. All my discipline is directed into my family, friendships and job, so everything else is free reign by design, and it creates balance.
Q: What advice would you give to new employees?
A: I’d say that no matter what position or seniority you hold, stay humble but believe that you deserve to be here and treat everyone — from faculty to facility services — as your equal. It’s fundamental to a learning environment to practice healthy discernment but not get caught up in title hierarchies and an arcane idea that only certain types of intelligence merit deference. Be you, work hard and treat others well.
Q: Would you share a bit about your background and career journey?
A: I have worked in marketing for cultural organizations my entire career. My first real job was at a co-op art gallery, and from there I went to work for a state museum system. After that, I was transferred internally to the state tourism office to work in international marketing, and ultimately I pivoted to sales and marketing for university publishers within the humanities. I took the job at the Moody after working as the marketing director for McGill University’s academic press for a few years. It was a bit of a boomerang to come back to the arts by way of a career in universities, but it was the right path for me. I also have a master’s degree in art history from LSU, and I used to write arts features for publications in Baton Rouge.
I am a military brat, but I was born in Wichita Falls. Growing up, we lived in Louisiana, Kansas, Washington, Georgia, Virginia, Nevada and Germany. I have a loving partner, and between us, we have four kids.
Q: What’s your favorite lunch spot or snack?
A: This is another area where my curiosity prevents me from being loyal to just one place or snack. I’m lucky at the Moody because we have the Moody Café right in our building. Aside from that — and just focusing on campus — you can’t beat a roasted veggie bowl at Local Foods. If I had Local Foods making my vegetables as a kid, I would be 2 inches taller and have no astigmatism in my right eye, I just know it.
Q: What’s your secret talent?
A: I don’t tend to keep my so-called talents a secret. I probably should.
Q: What’s one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?
A: Surround yourself with peaceful, grounded older women. Then just be quiet and pay attention.
Q: If you could be Sammy The Owl for a day, what would you do?
A: I think Mike the Tiger of my alma mater would probably hunt me down for even considering it, so I’d stay nested in our beautiful canopy of trees for both pleasure and self-preservation.
Q: How would you describe your experience as a Rice employee?
A: Exceptional. The opportunities I have to impact the lives of students, showcase research and scholars and connect with the public are tangible and exciting. The professional development options are amazing too. I have great colleagues. The friendships I’ve made here are a complete bonus. If I could just teleport over the traffic and move the equator a few degrees more to the south, it would be close to ideal.
Q: What’s your favorite memory from your time with Rice?
A: When the University of Houston had to disband its Center for Diversity and Inclusion and LGBTQ Resource Center in response to Senate Bill 17 and Rice PRIDE extended its membership to those students. It was the best reaction to our privilege and a perfect example of how to be in a community. I hope we can keep showing up in that manner during the next four years and beyond.
Q: Describe Rice in four words or less.
A: Excellence paired with compassion.