Teaching Statement

My teaching philosophy is to equip future policymakers, practitioners, industry leaders, and researchers with the skills to apply economic insights to real-world challenges. I see students as future colleagues and collaborators and strive to ensure that they can confidently interpret and apply quantitative analyses, whether they plan to conduct research themselves or use it to support their work. In doing so, I aim to help every student build confidence in technical fields while also challenging the most advanced students to think creatively and rigorously about difficult-to-solve problems.

As a PhD student at Yale, I have pursued many opportunities to gain a wide breadth of teaching experience while conducting rigorous research. I was the lead instructor for a six-lecture programming workshop for environmental scientists, a guest lecturer in a graduate-level applied math course, contributed nine foundation lectures for the Yale School of the Environment’s data science certificate program, and was the teaching fellow for six graduate-level programming and environmental economics courses. In addition to my experience with teaching quantitative courses, I was also the lead teaching fellow for a week-long module on environmental leadership that is required for all incoming master’s students at the Yale School of the Environment. I co-led this module three years in a row and taught multiple lessons on community engagement, working in teams, and leadership.

My extensive teaching experience caused me to witness how intimidating students find economics, math, and computer science. This is particularly true for students who do not see themselves in the fields’ current professors and leaders. Therefore, I have learned how to create a welcoming and non-intimidating environment. The classroom setting I curate empowers students to ask questions and feel they deserve to understand the explanation. Because my students are not intimidated to advocate for their own learning, they leave believing that these technical fields have a place for anyone excited to learn. Student appreciation of this approach is apparent in my course reviews, with students saying:

• “Andie is one of the best TFs I’ve had at Yale. She is so smart and patient and can explain very complex topics clearly and concisely. She will be an amazing professor someday.”
• “Andie is an excellent teacher, and she is very gifted at explaining exceptionally challenging topics and distilling them into their most important components. She is by far the best TF I have had at Yale and will make a fantastic professor.”

Teaching technical subjects in an interdisciplinary school has motivated me to find multiple ways to present the same material so that anyone from humanities to engineering students can leave with a mature understanding. My approach includes providing detailed lecture notes, pacing lectures so that students can take meaningful notes, providing video recordings so that students can revisit the material, and offering approachable office hours. A recent example of this multiple-pronged approach occurred while teaching for-loops during my programming workshop. First, I provided lecture notes on how a four-loop can turn multiple lines of code into far fewer. Second, I wrote the code “live” during the lecture and asked students to follow along on their computers. During office hours, many students were still confused about indexing for-loops. I drew a diagram on the whiteboard and watched the concept click for the students present. In the next lecture, I began with a refined version of the diagram before moving on to the next topic. My detailed approach to teaching technical topics is praised by students, with some saying:

• “Andie’s notes were incredibly helpful because in class, I was focused on following the steps, and I would check with Andie’s notes to make sure I got everything, and they were much more succinct! Her sessions were always so helpful - Andie is awesome!!”
• “Andie’s lecture notes were extremely helpful, and her sections and office hours were truly invaluable.”
• “Andie provides great resources, is available to answer questions, and is extremely kind.”

I have also enjoyed the chance to advise an undergraduate student and a master’s student on two separate research projects. For both, I met with them weekly during an academic year to discuss progress on their work, move them past roadblocks, and establish clear next steps for the following week. The undergraduate was a computer science major and helped me develop data cleaning functions for the American Time Use Survey to use in a Travel Cost Model. The master’s student analyzed how the Bureau of Economic Analysis could adjust existing satellite accounts to better account for the value of local recreation. Mentoring these students has also reinforced my belief in nurturing top performers by helping them develop independence, refine their research questions, and connect their work to broader insights.

Beyond the classroom, I have mentored undergraduate students through Backcountry Squatters, a non-profit I co-founded in 2018 and led as board president until May 2025. Backcountry Squatters fosters an inclusive outdoor community by providing leadership opportunities, personal growth, and industry-specific professional development for college women and non-binary students across more than a dozen chapters nationwide. Working closely to support the undergraduate chapter leaders has deepened my understanding of how students learn best, what they need from mentors, and how to create supportive learning environments that empower them to take ownership of their growth. These insights directly inform my teaching, where I prioritize active engagement and student-driven learning to help students build confidence in their ability to acquire technical skills.

Ultimately, I am committed to fostering an inclusive, supportive, and intellectually rigorous environment where students grasp complex concepts and gain the confidence to apply them in research, policy, organizing, and industry. Whether through structured lectures that cater to multiple learning modalities, interactive exercises, or personalized mentorship, I strive to make my courses accessible, engaging, and relevant.

Looking ahead, I am eager to continue refining my approach to teaching and mentoring and to develop new ways of equipping students with the technical skills needed to tackle real-world challenges. As both an educator and mentor, my goal is to empower students to see themselves as capable problem solvers, critical thinkers, and future leaders in their fields.

Lecture Sample

Below is a lecture I prepared as an instructor for the Yale School of the Environment’s Environmental Data Science Certificate Program. This was the first lecture in the Data Foundations module.