I am an Assistant Professor of Higher Education and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College.  I use quantitative and mixed methods to understand how policies and programs affect community college students’ outcomes.  The goal of my research is to inform policy that improves socioeconomic mobility for historically marginalized students. Because students of color and low-income students are overrepresented at community colleges, these institutions are the jumping off point for many of my questions. My research has been published in journals such as Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Education Finance and Policy and the Journal of Higher Education.  I am a WT Grant Foundation Scholar, class of 2024 and a 2021 NAED/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. I have also received funding for my research from the American Educational Research Association, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation and the Institute of Education Sciences.   

Before coming to Vanderbilt, I was a fellow at the Brookings Institution's Brown Center on Education Policy.   I earned my doctorate in Quantitative Policy Analysis in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  Before going to HGSE, I taught developmental English at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, as well as ESL, GED and citizenship classes in non-profits supporting immigrant populations around New York City.  I received my B.A. in Anthropology from Reed College.

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