I am a doctoral candidate in Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. My research focuses on gender, sexuality, sexual violence, and incarceration — specifically, using mixed methods to look at how race, gender, and sexuality affect the criminalization of female sex offenders.

As a queer sexual assault survivor, I have always been interested in the relationship between identity and criminalization in cases involving sexual harm. As an undergraduate at Columbia University majoring in Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, I researched how queer girls were disproportionately reported for statutory rape in the Midwest and the role of mugshots in framing Black women as sexually deviant on sex offender registries in New York and Los Angeles. I also conducted research on how survivors of sexual violence with marginalized identities interact with school Title IX processes. I co-authored a Title IX policy demand letter in 2017 based on semi-structured interviews with sexual assault survivors from dozens of institutions, which was endorsed by over 100 groups nationwide, and spoke about Title IX at the 63rd annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. My work on Title IX has been published in Feminist Criminology and The International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy.

My current research project uses prison entry demographics and in-depth interviews with state actors in California to examine how carceral imaginaries affect how the criminal legal system deals with cases involving women of color accused of sex crimes. My research has been published in Sociology Compass and funded by the National Science Foundation, the American Society of Criminology Division on Feminist Criminology, and the UCI Law Initiative to End Family Violence. I was the recipient of the 2022 American Sociological Association Student Forum Paper Award and the 2020 Columbia University Women's and Gender Studies Prize.

Outside of academia, I spend most of my time doing advocacy work and writing. I founded and run an organization called The Make It Safe Project that donates books about sexuality and gender identity to schools, youth homeless shelters, and juvenile detention centers. I spent six years serving on the National Advisory Council for GLSEN and five years doing anti-sexual violence advocacy work in No Red Tape Columbia. I am currently the President of Associated Graduate Students of UCI, a member of the Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee, and the graduate student representative on the UCIPD Police Accountability Board. I was one of The Advocate magazine's Forty Under 40 LGBT Activists of 2012 and a runner up for GLSEN's Student Advocate of the Year Award in 2012 and 2014. On the writing front, I was a national Writing Portfolio Gold Medalist in the 2015 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. My writing has been published in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and Everyday Feminism, among other outlets. I am currently represented by Natalie Lakosil at Looking Glass Literary & Media Management.

You can view my current CV here.