My journey started with teacher evaluations and a departmental debate about plants.

I began my career on the teacher evaluation team at the Tennessee Department of Education. It was 2012, and the department had just hired a slew of new employees who were smart, driven, and — young. The state was the first (alongside Delaware) to win federal funds through the Race to the Top grant, and it had begun implementing a number of systemic reforms.

During that time, I saw defensive responses to changes as large as a statewide teacher evaluation system and as small as a new policy banning live plants in our office. In both cases, there were unspoken fears and anxieties that manifested as “resistance” to the changes.

I often wondered what could have happened if the unspoken fears and anxieties had been discussed more openly. What would it have taken for that to be possible? What opportunities could it have opened up?

These questions inspired me to pursue my Ph.D. in Education with a concentration in Culture, Institutions, and Society from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This interdisciplinary program allowed me to take classes and gain mentorship throughout Harvard, including the Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Business School. I started out studying organizational behavior as it applied to the education context, and my interests quickly expanded to other types of organizations central to the functioning of society.

As my interests expanded, I was drawn more towards organizational research, especially systems psychodynamics. I pursued a postdoc in Management at the George Mason University School of Business, where I am currently continuing my research, working on new collaborations with colleagues, and teaching classes on management and organizational behavior.