I am a Post-Doctoral Research Associate with the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in August of 2015, with a major in American Politics and a minor in Public Policy. I received my M.A. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in August of 2012, and my B.A. in Political Science from Eastern Connecticut State University in May of 2010.

In general, I am interested in state and local politics, campaigns and elections, judicial politics, political behavior, political parties, and public policy. In my dissertation I studied how voters behave in non-partisan judicial elections and in primaries. Specifically, I examined what types of voters participated in these contests, which voters were best able to participate effectively, and how candidate behavior influenced voter behavior in these contests. I am currently doing research on local elections, as part of the Local Elections in America Project (LEAP).

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