Research

My research agenda builds heavily on my professional experience in student affairs, and I employ a critical lens with multiple quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigate how colleges and universities can foster more equitable structures and opportunities for students who have been systemically minoritized (e.g., due to gender, race/ethnicity, first-generation college status), primarily within STEM disciplines. A large portion of my research program is focused on structural inequities that shape students’ trajectories to and through STEM graduate degrees. Within this research, I examine how specific disciplinary environments (e.g., research groups) and systemic norms in STEM (e.g., racism, sexism, academic capitalism) manifest and maintain disparities in students’ mentoring relationships, psychosocial development, and student outcomes. While I often apply my lens of inquiry to STEM fields, implications from my work can advance equity-minded mentorship, graduate school and career trajectories, and institutional structures to support under/graduate student development across fields of study.

Recently, my independent and collaborative research has been funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National Science Foundation, ACPA Foundation-College Student Educators International, American Educational Research Association, and P.E.O. International.

Please feel free to view a recently updated curriculum vitae or my publications page to learn more about the work in which I have engaged.