about

Children and families encounter public systems — child protection, school, health and social services — at some of the most critical moments of their lives. My research examines how those systems operate, where they fail, and how policy can be redesigned to better support the children and families they serve. I mainly use theory-driven, social epidemiologic approaches and population-based linked administrative data, with the aim of producing findings that are actionable for policymakers and practitioners.

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Systems, Management & Policy at the Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. I am also a research affiliate of the CU Injury and Violence Prevention Center, the CU Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative, and the Children's Data Network. 

My current K01 award funded by the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention & Control examines how state paid family leave policies affect family violence indicators after the birth a new child, with a focus on the recently implemented Colorado Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program.

Before joining CU, I used large datasets to advance social justice aims at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the Public Health Foundation of India, the National Court Appointed Special Advocates/Guardians ad Litem Association for Children, and the Global Center for Integrated Health of Women, Adolescents, and Children. This work—spanning global burden of disease, child welfare, and maternal health—grounded my commitment to using rigorous analytic approaches to developing evidence that informs policy change. My work has appeared in Child Abuse & Neglect, American Journal of Epidemiology, and The Lancet among other academic journals. 

I hold a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work. I completed my MPH in Global Health (Health Metrics) at the University of Washington while funded by a three-year data science fellowship at IHME. I attended Colorado College and graduated with distinction in Neuroscience, minoring in Bioethics.