Biography

Christina's teaching, research, and professional experience focus on informal and object-based learning.  Her dissertation research involved the creation and evaluation of an outreach program in a dozen retirement communities using museum objects, and results from over one hundred participants found that the program was characterized by sensory exploration, cognitive and emotional responses, socialization, and the sharing of memories on the part of participants. Program participation was found to have a positive, statistically significant relationship with improvements in mood. 

Christina is an instructor in the Museum Studies Graduate Program, where she teaches courses on informal learning and audience research & evaluation and is the 2018 recipient of the Harvard Extension School's Petra Shattuck Excellence in Teaching Award.  Christina is also a researcher at Project Zero, a research center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she has led or worked with a variety of projects, including explorations of cross-cultural student online discussion spaces as part of the Out of Eden Learn team; a qualitative study of almost 2000 higher education stakeholders as part of the Higher Education in the 21st Century project; a quasi-experimental investigation of the impact of 'maker' activities on K-12 students through the Agency by Design project; and Art Works at Work, a partnership with Independent Schools Victoria to explore the benefits of arts-based programming on the workplace environment.  In addition, she is a Research Associate with Turtle Peak Consulting and a volunteer board member of the non-profit Massachusetts Odyssey of the Mind, the state branch of an international creative problem-solving competition for students.

Before coming to Harvard, Christina worked as an educator in over a dozen museums, including the J. Paul Getty Museum, National Air and Space Museum, National Zoo, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.  She has also served as an education and evaluation consultant for education organizations, including Art Beyond Sight, Newport Restoration Foundation, and the Center for the Advancement and Study of International Education. 

Christina earned B.A.s in Art Conservation and Art, with a minor in Art History, from the University of Delaware Honors Program, a M.A. in Museum Studies from The George Washington University, as well as a M.Ed. in Learning & Teaching and a Ed.D. in Education Policy, Leadership, and Instructional Practice from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.