Bio

Since 2018 I have been pursuing a PhD in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where I focus on issues of international migration, inequality, and education. My dissertation studies how migration affects the academic outcomes of young immigrants, especially foreign-born children of return migrants.

My independent research has examined the academic outcomes of youths of immigrant background: U.S.-born children of return migrants in Mexico, Eastern Europeans in Western Europe, and children of immigrants in the United Kingdom. I highlight the important roles of national education systems and other institutions, showing how they can both enable and hinder immigrant integration and success. In collaborative work I have also studied the migration of immigrants in same-sex couples, deportation worry among Latino immigrants, and the naturalization processes of early 20th-century European immigrants

Born in Rochester, New York, I grew up in Overland Park, Kansas, and attended the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where I majored in French and cello performance. After graduating in 2013, I taught English in Belgium on a Fulbright grant before securing a job as Program Manager in the Fulbright office in Brussels. In 2016-2017 I completed a master’s in Social Policy and Social Research at University College London’s Institute of Education.