About me

I'm a developmental scientist working at the intersection of neuroscience and society — studying how economic adversity shapes early childhood, and increasingly, how the law can put that science to work for children and families.

I'm a Ph.D. candidate in Developmental and Psychological Sciences at Stanford University, where I work with Dr. Phil Fisher at the Stanford Center on Early Childhood. My research examines how material hardship and economic volatility in early childhood affect development across the lifespan, with a focus on moving beyond income alone — and beyond deficit narratives — to capture the adaptive strengths of families navigating economic adversity.

Increasingly, I'm also drawn to questions about how scientific evidence travels into public institutions. I'm exploring how legal systems interpret and use developmental and brain science, and what it would take for that evidence to help forge more compassionate, equitable institutions. In some ways, this is less a departure than a return: what first drew me to neuroscience was a desire to understand the decisions that shape young people's lives — and the institutions that respond to them. A decade of studying families under economic pressure has convinced me that where this evidence lands — in courtrooms, in child-welfare decisions, in policy — matters as much as what it finds. It's an emerging thread in my work — less a fixed agenda than a conviction that the science of human development should serve the public good.

Before Stanford, I earned an M.S. in Neuroscience & Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an Sc.B. with honors in Cognitive Neuroscience from Brown University. A proud first-generation college graduate from Albuquerque, New Mexico, my graduate work has been supported by the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship, the Gates Millennium Scholarship, and the Quad STEM Fellowship, among others.

I'm also the founder and executive director of FLi Sci, a national nonprofit helping first-generation/low-income (FLi) students pursue careers in science (Sci). Getting to graduate school shouldn't come down to luck — every talented student deserves a fair chance.