I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at  the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University. I work at the intersection of Social Stratification, Population, Sociology of Education, Community and Urban Sociology, and Sociology of Race and Ethnicity subfields. My core research focuses on the relationship between residential attainment and access to educational opportunity in the US, though I have projects that range across many domains of inequality.

Many of my publications and working papers investigate connections between structural inequalities and individual choices:

• How do selection processes reflect and reinforce racial and socioeconomic gaps in educational attainment, wealth accumulation, childhood health, and economic opportunity?
• How do micro-level decisions contribute to macro segregation and the persistence of inequality over time and between generations?
• And how are choices influenced not only by individual resources and preferences, but also by local geographic, demographic, social, and policy contexts?

I hold affiliations with Cornell’s Center for the Study of Inequality and the Cornell Population Center. My interest in complex systems has also led me to develop connections and a graduate field membership with Cornell Systems Engineering. Before beginning my PhD in Sociology at New York University, I worked as a high school math instructor and coordinator at Making Waves, a non-profit educational access program in Richmond, CA. I also spent one year abroad, teaching mathematics at Study Hall School and Prerna School in Lucknow, India. I completed my BA in Sociology from UC Berkeley in 2004.

Office Hours
My Fall 2023 drop-in office hours are Tuesdays, 3:30-4:30pm, in 3M222 MVR Hall. Individual appointments can be scheduled via Calendly (availability is limited).