The author (middle), with CLL Director Mimi Ito (left) and CLL Head of Operations Julie Herrick (right)
After six years with UC Irvine and the Connected Learning Lab, I’m moving on to a new position out of state. It’s difficult to put into words how meaningful my time with the CLL and CLA has been, but I’m going to try.
I started working for the CLL at UC Irvine in 2019 as a program administrator, supporting various faculty and lab operations. I was immediately struck by the incredibly hard-working, creative, and inspiring team of people at both the CLL and its affiliated nonprofit, the CLA. I came to the CLL straight off earning a Masters in Writing from UC Irvine, and at the time I joined, I had no background in education research. But I was really excited by what I understood about connected learning values and the lab’s mission. I drew from my experience as a writer, editor, and administrator to support the CLL’s varied and exciting work, and leaned on the invaluable support of my colleagues at the CLA, and the CLL leadership and core team, as I learned about the field. My work was incredibly fulfilling – I supported projects around library staff developing teen services for diversity, equity, and inclusion, equitable career pathways for youth, an incubator program for well-being-focused youth-serving organizations, and so much more.
In the end of 2021, when our former communications director Jamieson Pond moved on, my role shifted into being much more communications and production-focused. I took over the CLA newsletter and the blog, started working regularly with the awesome CLA communications team to promote connected learning research and initiatives, and project-managed a number of major publications over the next few years, including reports on social media and youth wellbeing, youth mental health and the metaverse, asset-based approaches to civic learning, and connected learning in public libraries; as well as two books with MIT Press, on algorithmic rights for children and youth well-being in a tech-heavy world.
More recently, I’ve been able to start producing more original work for the ICS School, and the Connected Learning Alliance and its projects. The opportunity to interview and learn about the field of education from researchers, experts, thought leaders, youth and community workers, and educators has been a true highlight for me in my career over the last few years, and one I hope to continue in new ways.
Six years later, I can say I’m so incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to grow into this particular space, especially under the inimitable mentorship of Mimi Ito, and alongside the incredible teams at the Connected Learning Lab (especially Head of Operations Julie Herrick, who makes everything possible) and the Connected Learning Alliance. This is an unbelievably special community, and I’m eternally grateful to everyone I’ve been able to connect with because of it.
While it’s very bittersweet for me to be moving on from the CLL and UC Irvine, I’m excited to share that I’ll be staying in the field, supporting the School of Education at the University of Colorado – Boulder as the new Executive Assistant to the Dean. It’s also not a true goodbye for me to the CLA community — I will still be around here and there as a writer and editorial contractor (you may see my name around on some upcoming promotion pieces for CLS2025!) — and I’m looking forward to continuing to be an avid reader of the CLA’s outputs, including this blog and the CL newsletter. I’m very happy to share that the newsletter will be run by longtime member of the Connected Learning community and collaborator, Colin Angevine, moving forward. Colin will be relaunching the newsletter with a new format in the New Year — stay tuned for exciting things in 2026! Colin has worked with the CLA on a number of big projects, and I’m excited to be passing the newsletter off to him!
