Hometown: Fort Wayne, Ind.
Degrees earned: B.A. in Women’s Studies from San Francisco State University; J.D. Stanford Law School; LL.M University of Wisconsin Law School
Arrived at NIU: 2001
Classes taught: I teach classes related to family law, domestic violence and the law as it pertains to sex and sexuality.
What is your mission in academia?
I try to teach students how to locate relevant and necessary information, place it in the proper context and utilize it in the proper manner. I also strive to instill an understanding that legal practice is public service.
How did you become interested in your subject area?
I came to family law after years of social service work where I focused on issues of domestic violence and women's reproductive health among others. I started working in organizations addressing domestic violence and sexual assault while I was a women's studies student. Women's studies is where my interest in researching issues relating to women, race, gender, sexual orientation and class began. My social service work was primarily with poor people, which is where I became interested in issues of poverty.
What makes your class interesting?
The courses I teach are inherently interesting with provocative, some might say controversial, topics built in.
What kinds of things do your graduates do?
A number of my students have gone on to practice public interest law as legal service lawyers, public defenders, state's attorneys or public guardians. Others practice family law, in small or midsized firms.
Why did you choose your first college/university?
I started college at Indiana University because it was a state school (which made it affordable) and it had a high-quality liberal arts program. After moving to California, I chose San Francisco State University, where I completed my B.A., because it was one of few schools in the country offering a bachelor’s degree in Women's Studies.
What’s your best advice to students who want to succeed?
Read. This means read everything for class and any supplemental materials. Read outside of class, during the summer, every day. Read newspapers, magazines, novels, non-fiction books. Read. Read. Read.
If you weren’t teaching, what would you be doing?
I would either be working in public interest or public-sector law, or for a social service agency, which is what I did before I entered academia. If I wasn't teaching law, I'd probably be in another area of academia.
Photos by Scott Walstrom, NIU Media Services