Although I love my family and my hometown, I decided to venture out into the fast-paced world of east coast city life to pursue my college education at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland in Baltimore. As a student at a small liberal arts college, I was able to major in psychology and also play on the varsity basketball team. After completing my Bachelor of Arts in 2007, I moved to Virginia to earn my Masters of Arts in Experimental Psychology at Radford University. I took a year off from school and worked as a research study coordinator at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina for a study sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In 2014, I earned my doctorate degree in Human Development and Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. I started my position as Assistant Professor at Ball State University in the Department of Psychological Science in 2014 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2019.