After receiving my Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Political Science, and Religious Studies from Virginia Tech in 2012, I entered Stony Brook University’s Philosophy and Women's, Gender and Sexuality PhD program in the Fall of 2013, where I was awarded the Pieper Merit Scholarship Award for my incoming cohort (I was also one of just 2 to be admitted straight out of undergraduate study). In 2015, I obtained my MA in philosophy and graduate-level certification in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies from SBU. Since then, I have worked as an adjunct professor in both philosophy and WGSS, and recently, even as an AP history teacher at a high school in Brooklyn. Based on the success of my classes, I was awarded the President’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching from SBU in 2017. My research aims to think through the temporal dimensions of individual + collective trauma so that these dimensions may be used to forge new modalities + practices of identity that are inherently relational/aim to foster collective organization and communication. I am the co-founder, host and member of many artist action collectives that seek to provide safe spaces for queer young/adults to engage in vulnerable collaboration and dialogue through the use of mixed media, colloquium talks, performance art and poetry. I am currently applying to MSW programs for the Fall of 2022 with the hope of becoming a licensed clinical therapist specializing in PTSD and addiction. After completing my MSW, I plan to embark upon an intensive training program to gain licensure in psychodynamic analysis.