Hello, I am currently a PhD student in Education Policy in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine. My research focuses broadly on how K-12 school systems can be organized to improve the short- and long-run outcomes of students. In particular, I focus on issues surrounding staffing, program and curricular offerings, and educational governance. 

Given that the largest resource that schools invest in to promote student success is the staff they hire, much of my research focuses on teachers as well as the various other adults working in schools. My previous and ongoing work examines the distribution of different types of educators across schools, the effects of educators on student outcomes, and the impacts of policies to improve the retention and effectiveness of educators. 

In my research, I apply a variety of descriptive and causal methods to administrative data sources to produce large-scale evidence with relevance to district, state, and national policymakers. Much of my work has been done through a unique partnership between UCI, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Oregon Department of Education. I have also worked with administrative data sources from California, Virginia, Nebraska, Montana, and Chile. My research is supported by the AERA/NSF dissertation fellowship.

I am a proud third generation graduate of the San Bernardino City Unified School District in California. Prior to graduate school, I was an elementary and middle school teacher in traditional public and charter schools in Las Vegas, NV.

I am on the 2026-27 job market.