President | Kino-Eye Center
RCEL Lecturer & Leadership/Outreach Specialist | Rice University | George R. Brown School of Engineering

PhD (ABD) Visual & Cultural Studies | University of Rochester
MFA Cinematic Arts | University of Southern California
MA Visual & Cultural Studies | University of Rochester
BFA Visual Arts | Rice University
BA Cultural Anthropology | Rice University
BA Art & Art History | Rice University

In my current role as Lecturer and Leadership/Outreach Specialist for the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership in the George R. Brown School of Engineering at Rice University, I teach courses on Leadership and Communication, lead the internship program, oversee the public school STEM outreach program, produce visual media content, and provide strategic promotional visibility consulting.

As a documentary filmmaker and visual anthropologist, I have traveled and worked in over 30 countries.  My films explore such diverse topics as modern primitivism & performance sub-cultures, paramilitary civilian action on the U.S./Mexico border, the controversial world of talk radio, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA fighting, and the relationship between sports and assimilation in immigrant communities.

Presently, I am working on several documentary films, including an exploration of the growing participation of women in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts. I have also worked as a News Editor and Special Projects Consultant for Fox 26 News, and content from my films has aired internationally on networks including National Geographic, Discovery Channel, FOX News, Documentary Channel, MSNBC, CNN, and CSPAN.

I have served for 10yrs as President of the Kino-Eye Center for Visual Innovation, a 501(c)3 Arts & Education non-profit foundation that I co-founded in 2004 with Rice University faculty and staff. Through the Kino-Eye Center, I have formulated a variety of Education & Arts initiatives, including the Deconstructing Literacy K-12 education intervention program, the Spring 2012 Rice University Centennial Courses in Film and Art History, and career development events in partnership with the Rice Center for Career Development and the Humanities Research Center.

New Media & social media technology, game-based learning, multi-user online learning environments (MOVE), visual & cultural studies, media production & theory, rhetoric & representation, horror/sci-fi/fantasy genre studies, visual anthropology, documentary film, transnational & diasporic representation, “ecstatic truth” & the cinematic sublime.