Welcome! I am a Ph.D. Student in Political Science in the Department of Government at The University of Texas at Austin. With subfields in American Politics & Methodology, I study local/urban politics. I am interested in the politics of local public policy and local political participation. Areas of interest include: urbanism, gentrification, climate policy, transportation policy, and gerrymandering. Alongside the pursuit of my Ph.D., I am pursuing an M.S. in Statistics.

In terms of current research experience, I am a Graduate Research Assistant at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University. I am working on the NSF-funded DRMS project "Collaborative Research: Responses to complex disruptive events: Cognition in a socio-political context" (2049796) to examine political participation in coastal communities negatively affected by climate change and social inequality. I am also a Graduate Research Assistant at the Department of Regional & Community Planning at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. I am working on a National Academies’ National Cooperative Highway Research Program-funded project “Guidance for Implementing Equitable Transportation Decision-Making” (NCHRP 08-162) to investigate how key organizational features and practices of state and regional transportation agencies facilitate or constrain equity in transportation policy decision-making. I also previously served as the State & Local Policy Fellow for the Advocacy Team at the education and tech policy non-profit Code.org.

I'm proud to be a first-generation college student and product of public education at the K-12, undergraduate, and graduate level. My academic career began in rural Missouri at Truman State University where I completed a B.S. in Political Science & International Relations (with honors and Phi Beta Kappa). At Truman, I conducted a variety of research projects on sub-national, national, and international education policy. Following undergrad, I moved back to my hometown of St. Louis, MO. Here, I joined Washington University in St. Louis' Department of Education as the Faculty Support Coordinator. At WashU, I supported faculty researching the intersection of politics, education, and social equity.

You can reach me at [email protected], CV here.