Personal Description:

I am an evidence-based chiropractor who strives to provide exceptional and quality care to my patients through manual treatment, education, and rehabilitation exercises. I believe it is imperative that my patients possess the self-confidence, and are equipped with the tools, to be active participants and self-advocates for their healthcare. I endeavour to empower my patients to live a balanced and healthy lifestyle. 

I graduated in 2015 from the University of Windsor with her Bachelor of Human Kinetics Honours [Major: Movement Science Co-op & Minor: Psychology] degree. Upon graduation, I attended the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College where I graduated with my Doctor of Chiropractic degree in 2019. I have also completed the Contemporary Medical Acupuncture certification through McMaster University. Throughout my post-secondary education, I have received several scholarships and awards for academic achievement, philanthropy and service work, as well as research endeavours. 

I define myself as a lifelong learner and a leader through service to others. In 2019, I was fortunate to be selected to participate in a chiropractic treatment outreach to the Dominican Republic, where I along with other chiropractic interns and clinicians treated 1115 patients in areas where access to healthcare is limited. 

In my spare time, I enjoy reading a good book with a coffee, spending quality time with my friends and family, as well as being immersed in nature!

Tutoring Experience:

- Co-Coordinator & Leader, KinOne Program, University of Windsor, 2012-2015
- Peer Tutor, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, 2016-2019

Tutoring Approach:

Mission: As a healthcare professional, I always strive to lead with integrity and by example in all that I do. I believe it is imperative that all individuals possess the self-confidence and skills, and are equipped with the tools, to become self-advocates for themselves and their goals. I strive to always create a safe, inclusive, and equitable space so that individuals feel comfortable to ask questions and take risks in order to further their knowledge and understanding. I define myself as a lifelong learner and a leader through service to others. I acknowledge my privilege in obtaining the level of education I have acquired, and I strive each and every day to use my education and skill set to enhance the lives of others.

Throughout my educational career, I have always been a keen observer of my teachers and educators – noting their different teaching approaches and styles, and assessing which methods resonated with me most as a budding learner. Over the course of 20 years of schooling at the elementary school, high school, undergraduate, and professional school levels, I have been a learner in many educators’ classrooms and laboratories, which has afforded me the opportunity to reflect on both effective, and non-effective, teaching methods.

I believe that presenting course content and material in a clear and organized manner creates an effective learning environment for students. My experience has been that providing lecture notes via a PowerPoint slideshow format with key words or concepts eliminated from the final version of the lecture presentation provides an opportunity for students to stay engaged in the lecture (in order to fill in the missing content), while also providing an opportunity for students to listen to and absorb the material, without all of their attention focused on writing down all of the lecture notes for future study reference. In accordance with The Universal Design for Learning Guidelines (UDL), I believe adding in a variety of tools throughout a lecture, including but not limited to slideshow notes and YouTube videos, to be helpful in maintaining engagement.

Additionally, I believe providing clear expectations for both the learners and the educator is essential in creating a learning environment in which mutual respect is fostered. My experience as a learner has taught me that classes where expectations are not clearly conveyed or understood often lead to frustration and disinterest in the entirety of the course. I believe by outlining these expectations clearly in both the syllabus as well as in the introductory lecture, this establishes a teaching and learning environment in which everyone is aware of their roles and responsibilities for the course, which ultimately sets both the learner and the educator up for success.

Having been evaluated in a multitude of ways throughout my education, including but not limited to course examinations and national licensing board examinations, I have always appreciated the courses that offered a variety of evaluations, including but not limited to, papers, presentations, lab reports, group work, and examinations. In my experience, having two or three evaluation methods that are heavily weighted evokes stress and anxiety in many learners. Throughout the course of my educational career, I have experienced first hand that a lot of emphasis is placed on grades, despite the fact that grades are only one factor that is considered when seeking further educational and employment opportunities. Furthermore, I strongly believe that we are all imperfect humans who have better performance days than others – I believe that providing learners with multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding provides the educator with a more accurate reflection of each learner’s true knowledge, skills, and capabilities. I never want the stress of grades to overshadow the purpose of learning and developing the skills required to be successful candidates in the workforce.

As a peer tutor, I approached each tutoring interaction by having an open discussion with the learner regarding where they felt as though they struggled with respect to the course material. Some of these struggles included creating a study plan/organizing the material into smaller and more manageable pieces, reviewing test taking strategies and mimicking these scenarios during tutoring sessions to better prepare the student for the actual testing scenario, whereas other times this included simply reviewing the material in a different manner (i.e. YouTube videos, diagrams, discussion, textbook, etc) than originally presented. Discussing this early on in the tutoring relationship allowed me to create goals with each learner and ultimately helped us to create an actionable plan so they were successful in the course. This approach again is aligned with UDL, where the desired outcome is creating expert learners who are purposeful & motivated, resourceful & knowledgeable, as well as strategic & goal-oriented.

I have been fortunate in having several educators throughout my learning career who not only encouraged mastery of the course material, but concurrently taught skills related to that mastery that has carried forward into my professional practice. I believe that by creating a learning environment that encourages questions and discussion, even if a learner is unsure of the correct answer, this fosters a safe space that provides the opportunity for a deeper understanding and appreciation of what is being learned. By creating a safe learning space where students feel encouraged, supported, and confident enough to participate, regardless of outcome (i.e. being ‘right’ or ‘wrong’), I believe educators teach the importance of taking risks to acquire knowledge as well as teach the importance of problem solving when the ‘correct answer’ is not immediately known. As a healthcare professional, I constantly encourage my patients to ask me questions about their healthcare and plan of management, as I feel strongly that knowledge is power, and I want to help my patients become self-advocates for their healthcare. I always encourage and demonstrate transparency with my patients, informing them that if I do not know the answer to their question, I will do the research to find the answer for them.

I believe in leading through example. I believe teaching and learning not only occur formally within the walls of a classroom or laboratory, but that they also extend into real world moments. Leading with integrity demonstrates the type of person I want to be remembered as – and I believe this type of character development, especially with young adults who are navigating the unstructured territory of the real world, is essential in developing competent, resourceful, confident, lifelong learners. These are the skills I hope to teach through course material, as these are the skills that will serve learners as they enter the workforce.

I have been extremely fortunate with many amazing educators over the years that have supported and encouraged my love of learning. However, I have also met educators who have penalized me (sometimes even publically in front of peers) for asking questions and not knowing the answers. I believe it is the responsibility of the educator to match the effort of the student – if the student is doing their best to learn the material, I feel strongly that the educator should be available to the student to help them throughout this process. I have always admired and appreciated the teachers throughout my educational career who have gone above and beyond for me when I was learning, and I strive to follow in their footsteps with my patients and students.

To this day, I still maintain a relationship with many of my professors. I have always valued and appreciated their willingness to transition from professor to mentor over the years, and I often will still contact them to ask for their advice or opinion. I believe educators are in a powerful position to act as guides and mentors to our future leaders, and as such, I believe it is imperative that students are able to engage with their educators outside of the classroom, such as during office hours or while completing research endeavors. I believe that teaching is a fluid and ongoing process – I know that I still learn constantly from my former professors, and I am forever grateful that they continue to value our relationship as much as I do.

As a strong believer in lifelong learning myself, I would fully utilize the programs and courses offered at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning in order to improve my development of course outlines, course learning outcomes, assessment planning, selecting appropriate activities, as well as promoting student engagement. Encouraging learner feedback on the course delivery will further help me in improving my skills as an educator, as well as further help me improve the course format and delivery for future classes.

In summary, I believe being an educator is far more than just teaching course material. I believe an educator is an individual who strives to help learners develop the qualities and characteristics that will make them well rounded individuals who are competent, resourceful, confident, lifelong learners. I believe that educators are in a position that either has the potential to foster learner’s growth or squander it, and that is a privilege that ought not be overlooked.