​I am an assistant professor in the department of Political Science and faculty affiliate in the Gender, Race, & Identity (GRI) department at the University of Nevada, Reno.

I previously earned my PhD in political science from Boston University in 2020 and graduated cum laude from Simmons College in 2013 with a BA in political science.

​My teaching and research interests include the war on drugs, criminal governance, political violence, corruption, and illicit economies, with a regional focus on Latin America and the Caribbean.
 
My book project uses comparative ethnography to examine the ways in which political context impacts drug-trafficking violence in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. The book is titled The Art of Trafficking: How Politics Shapes Narco-Strategies and Violence in Central America and is under contract with Oxford University Press.

I won a 2022 Harry Frank Guggenheim Distinguished Scholar Award to support my project that is tracking Violence Against Public Figures (VAPF) in Central America.