What first got you interested in this law-psychology? 

I have always been interested in social justice, and I think the intersection of law 
and psychology provides a unique lens through which these issues can be 
explored.

What is your favorite city?

I have two!  Chicago is one of my most favorite cities, and I studied abroad in 
Vienna, Austria during my third year of college so I will always love Vienna.  
Both are incredible cities!

What is your favorite thing about being on the Student Committee? 

I love being able to work with all of the wonderful Campus Representatives!

What is the best thing about the AP-LS Conference?

Being able to attend so many interesting presentations!  It is always fun to learn 
new information within so many different areas of law and psychology, and to be 
able to support my colleagues.

What will you miss about being in grad school?

I will miss everyone in my lab and being at Drexel, but I will be very excited for 
the next step in my career!

Have you ever had a job you really loved? I loved my job as a research assistant at the
Treatment Research Institute—it helped solidify my decision to pursue the JD/PhD
degree (I got turned down the first time I applied, believe it or not). But the best job I
think I ever had was as a student librarian at Swarthmore. I was the face of the
library—I even got listed as one of the “hottest librarians” in one of the men’s
bathroom stalls in the basement (my friend took a picture and texted me
“congratulations.”) Plus, it paid dividends outside of the work-study money. In my
junior year, I was a participant in a glorified male beauty pageant, Mr. Swarthmore, as
the cross country representative. Now, I consider myself a talented person, but
unfortunately none of those talents really translate to a talent show. So, I decided to go
for some comedic relief and was an “extreme librarian” who could perform the most
basic of library tasks even under severe duress. It involved me getting pied in the face
at one point, so it was worth it. People were super into it and I got lots of
compliments—didn’t win the competition, though. Sometimes people let gold slip
through their fingers!

If you weren't in grad school, what would you be doing instead? Professional wrestler.
Next question.

Do you have any hidden talents? I’m really good at writing and performing comedic
raps, particularly of the birthday variety (but not freestyling). I broke it out a few times
in high school, college, and believe it or not, on graduate school interviews, but
haven’t really tapped into it since then.

What is your favorite city?
Philadelphia in the United States, hands down. If you move to the City of Brotherly
Love, you’ll understand. Worldwide, Edinburgh. Not because that’s where Harry
Potter was written (though that’s a plus), but because of the Royal Mile and Arthur’s
Seat.

What is the best thing about the AP-LS Conference?
Rubbing elbows with some of the best and brightest forensic minds in the country,
seeing lots of awesome talks, coming home with a ton of research ideas, and being able
to see friends you only get to see once a year.

What will you miss about being in grad school?
Not having to pay bills. Oh wait, that was college. In reality, being surrounded by lots
of great like-minded peers and not being expected to be an expert on things just yet—if
I say something less-than-enlightening, I can always fall back on the “I’m just a
student” excuse.

What is one professional goal that you have?
When I was in middle school, I wanted to be a historian, mainly because I thought the
job of a historian was to narrate History Channel specials. Turns out that’s not what
they do—Morgan Freeman does that. But, alas, Morgan Freeman is approaching
retirement, and somebody needs to take up the reigns. So I’m gonna go with narrating
a History Channel special on the history of forensic psychology in the United States.
And being quoted in Men’s Health. And maybe to make a solid contribution to translating research into policy and dissemination of research knowledge to the public-at-large. Not necessarily in that order, but maybe.

1. If you could only have three non-psychology books to have on your shelf, what would they be? Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, American Gods, The Things They Carried. 
2. Have you ever had a job you really loved? I have! I was a Forensic Case Manager in a mental health diversion program and I really truly loved it. 
3. If you weren't in grad school, what would you be doing instead? If I had to choose something aside from psychology, it'd be something creative. Either working in theater management or my (now, not so) secret pipe dream of curating art museums.  
4. What is your favorite city? Copenhagen
5. What is your favorite thing about being on the Student Committee? It's great to get to work with such awesome people and increase student involvement in an organization I've valued so much. . 
6. What will you miss about being in grad school? Hard to even think about ever being done, but I have a weekly dinner with my grad school friends where we cook a delicious meal together and I think once we all scatter I will miss that the most. 
7. What is one professional goal that you have? I'd like to write a book!

.

In academia we perch daily on our three-legged stools of research, teaching, and service. Those three words are the categories in my google calendar—color-coded like they were different children’s activities.  Some days, the whole day is yellow (my color for service), while others have a lovely rainbow of yellow, purple (research), and orange (teaching).  The goal, of course, is to spend as much time and have as much impact as possible on purple—I mean, research. You see, although we sing, “Research, Teaching, and Service,” we face pressure to make the research leg of our stool to be much larger than the other two.  And, not just any research. No, what is important are grants and peer-reviewed publications, and that is also what we want our job candidates to have. 

What can a graduate student do to get grants and peer-reviewed publications?  Like the
audience who attended the live session, I commend you for reading this and taking proactive steps now. If you are early in your graduate school career, then that is even better and I give you more commendation.  By starting your research story early, you can make everything count. As an example, if you are taking a social psychology class that has a paper requirement, don’t pick some random topic for your paper. Instead, pick a topic that fits with your research or complements your research.  In my lab we take this one step further and meet as a group to discuss all the students’ paper assignments for the semester. If we have a manuscript or grant proposal that needs a literature review and that topic fits one of the classes a student is in, then perfect! Two birds—one literature review draft. Also, be sure your conference presentations are turning into publications.  Sometimes it takes a couple of presentations to make up a manuscript, but the goal should always be to have publications and not just presentations. Think of presentations as a means to an end. Presentations give you the opportunity for feedback (and sometimes collaborations) from colleagues outside your university, force you to make progress on a project, and provide you a reason to visit places like San Diego in March. Although I might be jealous of all the cool places a person has visited and presented their research, a long list of only presentations and no publications on a CV will not impress me. 

What about teaching? Well, despite the universal sigh of relief at semester’s end when the
student parking lot is empty, we do prioritize teaching at large research universities. And, most of us actually like teaching and we want our new colleagues to like it and be good at it too. So, yes, you need some teaching experience, but don’t let it eclipse your research.  The best advice I received about teaching was that my teaching record won’t help me, but it could hurt me. You need the teaching experience and you need to do it well – that’s the expectation. So, get some experience and it’s even better if that experience is in core classes that departments usually need people to teach.

Finally, how much service should you do? The truth is that service won’t get you a job. Faculty search committees do not say, “She doesn’t have any publications or teaching experience, but she planned the department picnic and served on the graduate student senate! Give this woman a job!”  The best kind of service to do is the kind that advances your research or builds collaborator networks.  There will be plenty of time when you have tenure to do service that fulfills your soul and allows you to give back to your profession-- trust me, I’m the one who got roped into – I mean volunteered to write this blog post aren’t I?

What first got you interested in law and psychology?
My first interest in this field was actually when our Student Chair, Meghann Galloway, TA’d the lab portion of my Intro to Psychology course at Drexel University (for real!).  On the first day of class she told us about her experiences interning at the FBI and I just remember being really interested in her experience and wanted the same for myself.  With her help, I was able to join a forensic research lab on campus and it was history from there!  I have just always found every aspect of this psychology-law really interesting, which was meaningful to me, so I decided to stick with it.

If you weren't in graduate school, what would you be doing instead? 
I’d want to travel with either the Peace Corps or Remote Area Medical.

Do you have any hidden talents?
I used to be a part-time professional modern dancer, so I have a knack for anything related to physical activity (except playing DDR for some reason).  I really enjoy doing half-marathons, full marathons, and multi-sport events…but I don’t know if you could consider them talents perse because I think anyone is capable of doing those things.  :)

What is your favorite thing about being on the Student Committee?
The people I work with!  I find that more always gets accomplished when you have a group in charge, and I love how we get together to share ideas and make fun things happen for AP-LS and especially the student members of AP-LS.  Everyone on the committee always has great things to bring to the table and our fearless leader has a really great vision for how we can improve upon what the Student Committee does for it’s members.

What is your favorite thing about AP-LS?
I really like the networking opportunities you get.  I feel like the AP-LS Conference is the one place where I can listen to a research presentation, get really excited, and then run up to the researcher after the fact and just start throwing around questions and ideas.  I feel like our field at large is really interesting, and the people who do the really interesting research are always very helpful and wonderful to talk to.  If you ask one question about someone’s research, chances are it’ll turn into an amazing 15-minute conversation and lots of potential for collaboration.

What is one of your professional goals?
I want to be able to tie my forensic interests into my hobbies.  I love animals, and I love running…so a professional goal I have for myself would definitely be to either begin a K9 rehabilitation program in a correctional facility (since that’s already something some facilities do), or to start an exercise program or running club for offenders (or ex-offenders as part of a rehabilitation program).  If I could achieve both, I’d die so very happy