I am a PhD in Political Science from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. There I studied American politics, namely state and local government and racial politics. My research primarily focuses on issues of federalism and the political attitudes of Black Americans. My methodological expertise is in quantitative and experimental methods. 

My dissertation, entitled “What Has Black Leadership Done for Us?”: Black Voters, Cities, And Constraints On Local Politics, examines the state-local conflict that defines the governance of modern American cities. Many Americans suffer from gun violence in their local communities, but city leaders are often proscribed from implementing reforms--such as restrictions on the sale or possession of firearms--that could reduce gun violence. The culprit is something called preemption, which prevents local governments from going above and beyond state law in areas like gun control, minimum wage hikes, and LGBTQ protections. 

The institutional constraints are not well understood by the voting public, but they are felt. I ask, how do voters respond when forces beyond their control thwart their chosen leaders? In particular, I focus on Black Americans, who are harmed by firearms at much higher rates than their white peers, and who favor stricter gun control at much higher rates as a result. While they desire stricter gun control, they do not receive it. That is, in no small part due to policy constraints, such as preemption. 

Empirically, I conducted a survey experiment with an online sample of 1,500 Black adults to test the effects of policy constraints on voter attitudes. This work breaks new ground in the study of policy feedback effects on minority groups. 

I have presented that work in whole or in part in a number of venues, including at the American Political Science Association Conference (APSA), the Northeast Political Science Association Conference (NPSA), and twice at the Pennsylvania Political Science Conference (PPSA). At Temple, I was a Fellow in the Public Policy Lab from 2024 to 2025. I also spent a summer at Johns Hopkins University's Summer School on Racial Politics.

Prior to my PhD, I earned a Master of Arts in Political Science from Temple University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, MD.