Faculty Member
I am an Assistant Professor in the Digital Media Web Developer and Design program. I am also a proud Wolverine and graduated in 2009 from UVU. During my undergrad here, I had the opportunity to work on many exciting projects that included a capstone in Namibia, Africa.
During my junior year, I was recruited by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to become an assistant producer in the newly created Digital Media division. I worked on numerous projects from developing the first podcasts, streaming online video for the first time of broadcasts, and mobile. By graduation I was at a crossroads of whether I wanted to freelance or work for an established company. I enjoyed the autonomy of owning my own business and began digital media marketing with companies around the country.
I continued working part-time with the LDS Church until I was offered a full-time position focusing on emerging technologies and digital publications strategy. This role would catapult forward my career in a way that became more exciting as new technologies emerged and the field was broadening. This position allowed me to continue consulting as well for over a decade and broaden my digital media knowledge across many brand strategies and organizations.
During this time I finished my graduate studies at Arizona State University, focusing on content and audience with their American Media degree. Which then led me on a path back to Digital Media at UVU. Always the proud Wolverine!
Current Projects
1. Mighty 5 Virtual Park Ranger Project (Web Design + XR)
2. AI Drone Digital Twin Pentalofos, Greece (Digital Preservation)
3. Arctic World Archive (Digital Preservation)
4. Tiwanaku, Bolivia Web Experience (Digital Preservation + Web Design)
6. Channel Islands National Park Virtual Underwater and Dark Sky Project (Web Design + XR)
Past Projects and Adventures
-Sleeping Rainbow Ranch Virtual Tour (NCPTT)
-Louisiana Music Halls Preservation Project
-Timpanogos Cave National Monument Smart Trail
-UXpedition: Anaheim
-UXpedition: New York City
-UXpedition: Indianapolis
-Expedition: Canyonlands/Green River
-VR For Classroom Library Project, VR Tours for K-12
-Expedition: Canyonlands National Park
-Women's Namibia Project_ A Comprehensive Women's Study
-Capitol Reef Virtual Tour_ Sleeping Rainbow Ranch
-Forensics and Augmented Reality
-Digital Preservation in Svalbard, Norway
-VR For Classrooms (virtual tours)
Major: American Media and Popular Culture
Major: Digital Media
Adaptive Media II, Spring 2024
Immersive Experiences I, Spring 2024
Immersive Experiences II, Spring 2024
Independent Study, Spring 2024
Special Topics in Web Design and Development, Spring 2024
This award is given to individuals or organizations who contribute in one or more of the following ways_
-Strengthens social impact work at UVU
-Shows leadership in advancing community engagement as a critical component at UVU
-Forms innovative campus and community partnershipsEngages, models, or influences students to be involved in the pathways of social impact
-Serves as a co-educator and provides meaningful opportunities for students to learn and experience one or more of the pathways
of social impact
-Connects coursework and/or academic research to community-identified needs as a successful pedagogy
-Innovatively employs reflective strategies to connect students' impact with academics
-Demonstrates academic community engagement through teaching, community-based research, or promotion of service-learning on campus or in one’s discipline
This is an award I received for my efforts in teaching. My goal is to never make the classroom experience a stale one, fortunately we have many opportunities on campus to learn and apply best teaching practices. For me, this was jumping in with collaborations, service learning, and bridging the gap from university to industry.
This year was the first annual Innovation Day and Awards. Amber Smith-Johnson and I participated in Innovation Day to talk about our collaboration class. At the event, we shared with our peers how we combined our two classes (DGM 3260 Immersive Authoring II and ENGL 2010 Honors) to create an interactive product. This gave English students the opportunity to see their research paper applied to a real world product, and Digital Media students the opportunity to focus on design and media.
Amber and I received the Academic Innovation Award for our efforts to bring the real world experience into the classroom. We also invited students from both our classes to attend and it was a special experience to share this day with them too.
I was nominated and won the CET Faculty Service Award for 2021-2022. This highlighted my efforts to be involved in service to help continue the work in CET on a variety of service engagements across the college.
This is a Service Learning award to faculty who incorporate service learning into their curriculum. This was done for my DGM 4280 Authoring for Adaptive Media II course. It's a class that students work closely with a marketing director to develop a digital media strategy to help improve a product. It's a wonderful opportunity for students to get hands-on experience with a real world project.
