“Emily has been my mentor since I was 10 years old. She taught me how to weld and build, and kickstarted my passion for engineering and architecture. Now I’m going off to college to study civil engineering, and I’m forever grateful for her constant support and guidance in my life!”
— Erica Chu, Girls Garage student
Girls Garage (2013 - present)
Emily serves as Executive Director of Girls Garage, as well as Lead Instructor of carpentry, welding, advanced design/build, and activist art-making classes. Her greatest passion is teaching young girls how to use a chop saw or MIG welder for the first time. Her pedagogy combines a deep respect for girls’ identities and curiosities with highly technical knowledge and high-fidelity meaningful built work.
UC Davis (2015 - 2016)
During a one-year Visiting Professor appointment, Emily taught Design 50 (3D Design), and Design 127A and 127B (Design and Sustainability). Her studio courses brought together hands-on making techniques with social justice readings on feminism, critical race theory, and global inequalities in order to help students connect the act of design to a broader social charge.
UC Berkeley (2016 - 2020)
As a Lecturer in the College of Environmental Design, Emily taught Environmental Design 104 (Design Frameworks) as a comparative foundation for undergraduate students to analyze historical and contemporary schools of thought in architecture and city planning. She challenges her students to always have an opinion and to use existing narratives in sustainability and social design to frame their own values.
Studio H (2010 - 2015)
Emily co-created the Studio H design/build curriculum in 2010 for the Bertie County School District, North Carolina. The Studio H curriculum was subsequently approved and adopted as a UC-approved career and technical education course by the State of California. Emily taught the Studio H high school curriculum as an in-school vocational teacher until 2015 in both Bertie County and Berkeley, California.