About
About
From rural Arkansas classrooms to education policy research
I'm a Research Scientist at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University. I study teachers, school finance, and public policy — work shaped by years teaching in the schools where these policies play out.
How I Got Here
Where It Started
I started as a Teach For America corps member teaching life science at Blytheville High School in rural Arkansas, then went on to teach mathematics at Stuttgart High School. Those years in the classroom — seeing firsthand how policy decisions shaped my students' and colleagues' daily realities — planted the questions that still drive my research today.
Going Back to School
I pursued a Ph.D. in Education Policy at the University of Arkansas, where I learned to apply econometrics and data science to the teacher labor market questions I'd carried from the classroom. Dissertation: The Educator Labor Market in Times of Change.
Where I Am Now
I'm now a Research Scientist at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, where I study teacher labor markets, quality, and school finance. My work has appeared in Educational Researcher and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and been covered by The 74 Million and Education Week.