I study how immigrant families’ opportunities for belonging and inclusion are shaped by national immigration policies and local geographies, attending closely to raced and gendered inequalities. My book project examines how immigrant women navigate the tensions between federal anti-immigrant laws, municipal sanctuary policies, and gentrification. As a teacher and a researcher, I think deeply about community, relationships, and reciprocity.
I earned my PhD in Education from Harvard University in May 2022, concentrating in Cultures, Institutions and Society. Before my doctoral studies, I taught elementary school in a two-way immersion dual language program in Washington, DC and middle school English at a charter school in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. I am a mother of three spirited children and a native Rhode Islander. I live and raise my family in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Selected Academic & Professional Experience
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Current Position | University of Pennsylvania Population Studies Center | Postdoctoral Researcher
2022-2023 | Boston College Lynch School of Education and Human Development | Visiting Fellow
2022-2023 | Harvard Graduate School of Education | Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Adjunct Lecturer on Education
2021-2022 | Harvard Graduate School of Education | Instructor on Education
2020-2023 | Wellesley College | Visiting Lecturer in Education
EDUCATION
Ph.D. | Harvard University, May 2022
Education
Dissertation: “Fragile Belonging: Migration and Motherhood in a Sanctuary City”
Ed.M. | Harvard Graduate School of Education, May 2013
School Leadership
M.A.T. | American University, May 2008
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
B.A. | Vassar College, May 2004
American Culture, General and Departmental Honors, Phi Beta Kappa