I am a sociologist of flourishing: I seek to understand the mechanisms that prevent and promote the well-being of individuals, communities, and societies. The projects I've assisted have been published in top academic outlets--like Oxford University Press and the Review of Educational Research--and media outlets--like the New York Times and the Conversation. The students I've mentored have been offered over $1,300,000 in scholarships and fellowships, and my work has been recognized with over three dozen local, statewide, and national awards. 

 

I am currently working on two ethnographic books: one examining the achievement gap in a suburban community in Southern California and another focusing on youth experiences in a rural community with one of the highest rates of upward mobility in the United States. I am an alumnus of the Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Program and my graduate work is funded by the California State University Chancellor's Doctoral Incentive Program, the Josephine De Karman Fellowship Trust, the National Science Foundation, the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, the Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society, the Policy Academies, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Sigma Xi Scientific Honor Society, the UCSB Graduate Division, the UCSB Chicano Studies Institute, and the UCSB Center for Publicly Engaged Scholarship.