Tanya was born in Poughkeepsie, NY, and now lives in Muncie with her girlfriend Meg and their dog, Teeter. She has a BA in American Studies, an MA in US History, as well as a Ph.D. in Modern US History. Tanya has a varied career history that includes janitorial, retail, and warehouse work. She has also worked as a dog walker, barista and archivist. Currently she is a professor at Ball State University, and counts her students as her inspiration.
Tanya is an author and oral historian, and has a music obsession-she has played in punk bands her whole life. Her heroes include academic activists such as Loretta Ross and Angela Davis, and she never misses a chance to watch Murder, She Wrote.
Watching Democrats and Republicans continually fail to adequately represent and serve their constituents led her to run for office herself. She decided that running as an independent within the Socialist Party of Indiana is the best way to create a new ballot line and eventually, a viable political party. Tanya finds the tyranny of the two-party system morally and ethically unacceptable, and wants to blaze a path forward for those who may want to run on the SPI ballot in the future.