How a Singer Becomes a Systems Scientist

As I start this blog, I find it necessary to chart a course: how did I get here?

My parents joke that I was a singer before I was born. Growing up in a very conservative branch of the church of Christ, we sang 4-part a cappella music in every service, and I learned to read sheet music early. By 9 years old, I joined my first barbershop chorus singing baritone, which is known to be the coolest (or nerdiest) part. It's the "glue" - not a part that most people want to listen to in isolation, but one that makes all of the other parts work together. I did that competitively and professionally through high school, making albums and performing for audiences up to 9,000 people.

Entranced by the studio and the recording process, I went out of state to study audio engineering. Again, this was a part of the music-making process that wasn't always in the forefront, but shaped how the sounds interacted with one another. Leaving much of what I had known growing up for new experiences and friends also marked the beginning of my ongoing process of deconstructing my conservative roots. I enjoyed every minute of those college years, performing weekly and singing backups on stage and in the studio.

After college, I eventually landed a job at a local 4-year university teaching music business, audio engineering, and vocal performance. During this time, I continued producing under a company I owned with my husband. Ultimately, divorcing him and leaving our shared community became major catalysts in my deconstruction journey, fundamentally shifting how I viewed the world.

Professionally, I was evolving too. I created multiple hybrid courses, including a course of my own creation called The Art of Listening to Music, alongside the university’s instructional design team. I was also working on a Master's in experimental psychology at the time, curious about the intersection of sound and neuroscience. The instructional design team helped me see how that same psychology applies directly to teaching and learning.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, I was totally comfortable putting my courses online, but I found that many of my peers in higher ed were panicking. Realizing I had the skills to help, I shifted into instructional design while maintaining some teaching assignments as well.

Through all of this, my research and my experience have shown me that most things are not as simple as I once assumed. The brain is a self-organizing complex system, teaching and learning are ever-evolving (especially with LLMs now in play!), and the "right thing" is rarely as simple as finding an answer key. It is not just the pieces that matter, but their interactions and what emerges from them. Now, I combine my varied experiences and interests to study complex systems, whether I'm researching how the brain dynamically responds to stimuli to impact learning and mental health or navigating my own ongoing paradigm shifts.