Welcome! I am an incoming Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice at the University of South Alabama. I earned my PhD in Political Science from the University of Iowa. 

I study poverty, public policy, and political behavior in the United States, with an emphasis on social policy and welfare. My research examines how people's experiences with public policies shape their political behaviors and attitudes. I am especially interested in the role of policy design and implementation in this process. I also explore how poverty and social policy experiences impact civic engagement and political attitudes over time. 

In my dissertation, I bridge scholarship on policy feedback and political socialization to better understand the long-term effects of government policies on individuals and their political behaviors and attitudes. Focusing on adolescence, I study how people's experiences with government policy programs, such as TANF and SNAP, during youth impact their political orientations and political behaviors in adulthood. This research is supported by a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG) through the American Political Science Association/National Science Foundation.

My research has been published or is forthcoming in Policy Studies Journal, Political Research Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, Electoral Studies, Representation, and the Journal of Political Institutions and Economy.