Bio

I was born and raised in Rockford, Illinois and received my undergraduate education from Rock Valley Community College (2010–2012) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2012–2015; B.A., Psychology with Honors). I completed an undergraduate honors thesis at UW-Madison advised by Dr. Kristin Shutts examining children’s attention to nonverbal communication cues. I also worked as an undergraduate research assistant with Dr. Michael Koenigs and the Mind Research Network, where I independently conducted clinical interviews with incarcerated men as a part of a research program examining psychological, social, and neurobiological factors associated with incarceration in the U.S. correctional system. In 2015 I began working as a lab manager for Dr. Kristin Shutts. In this role, I also collaborated with Drs. Jenny Saffran (studying infants’ social word learning), Chuck Kalish (studying the role of social skills in children’s academic achievement), and Trish Devine (studying social bias interventions). I joined Cornell University as a social psychology PhD student in 2018, working primarily with Dr. Katie Kinzler and also with Drs. Amy Krosch, and Melissa Ferguson. The Kinzler lab moved from Cornell University to the University of Chicago in 2019; I subsequently earned my master’s degree in psychology from Cornell in August 2020 and began the developmental psychology PhD program at the University of Chicago in September 2020.

Outside of the lab, I have recently served on the University of Chicago Graduate Council Diversity and Inclusion committee, where I co-organized a month-long Juneteenth event culminating in a keynote address by Angela Davis; chaired the University of Chicago psychology department diversity and inclusion committee (2021-2023); served as a founding member and co-president of an organization serving first-generation and low-income students at the University of Chicago (2021-present); chaired the Cornell University psychology department diversity committee (2019–2020); founded and served as president of Cornell’s First Generation and Low Income Graduate Student Organization (2019–2020); and served as a student representative on Cornell’s Graduate and Professional Student Diversity Council (2019–2020). I have also enjoyed volunteering as a STEM outreach summer school teacher for grades K–5 and participating in various other volunteer work in my local communities.

Aside from my academic pursuits I enjoy playing board games with my partner and our friends, attending live music performances, developing my 35mm photography skills, reading, knitting, and working with polymer clay.