I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Pennsylvania State University and a Research Faculty at the Pennsylvania State University Social Science Research Institute. My scholarly and teaching focus lies at the intersection of American politics and methodology, with a particular interest in public policy and social, health, and racial inequality.

My research, which utilizes innovative methodological techniques, is aimed at understanding the political determinants of access to health care and social welfare resources in the U.S. This work has practical implications, as it explores the interactive effects of policy design and administrative burdens on policy/program enrollment, and how these effects vary by state.

My current book project looks at how states’ decisions regarding administrative burden in Medicaid affect take-up in that state and how state and local policy contexts may moderate this relationship. I use multilevel regression, imputation, and post-stratification to calculate a novel, nationwide dataset of Medicaid take-up. I also compile a novel database of state Medicaid administrative burden measures and state Medicaid program design features. For this research, I was awarded the American Political Science Association’s 2022 Paul Volcker Junior Scholar Award for Public Administration.