RESEARCH STATEMENT (abridged)
My forthcoming research is geared toward evaluating practical, evidence-based solutions at the community level, and making my findings accessible and useful for those most directly impacted.
RESEARCH TOPICSHealth Equity & Justice: Addressing health inequities and how solutions require protecting and expanding our democracy
Reproductive Justice: Anti-abortion fake clinics, self-managed abortion, maternal and infant mortality, pregnancy criminalization, and the opposition (anti-abortion leaders, groups, and organizations)
Movement Building Strategies & Tactics: How to build intersectional movements
Collective Violence: How responses to mass atrocities are impacted by framing and narratives
GRADUATE RESEARCH2020
Dissertation: “Building Intersectional Movements: Examining the Transition of a Single-Issue Organization into a Multi-Issue Organization”
Advisor/Research Chair: Dr. Joan Hermsen
Committee: Dr. Clarence Lo, Dr. Ibitola Pearce, Dr. Mary Jo Neitz, and Dr. Robert Benford
2009
Master’s Research Paper: “The Social Construction of Lynching Narratives”
Advisor/Research Chair: Dr. Robert Benford
Second Reader: Dr. Jennifer L. Dunn
EXPERIENCE2020-2024Reproaction | Senior Vice President of Research and Movement Building/Senior Movement Building and Research Manager/Movement Building and Research Manager/Senior Outreach Producer - Conducted and oversaw opposition research to increase access to abortion and advance reproductive rights
RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSIONS2025
Facilitator | Research Incubator/Collaborative Conversations: Health Equity and Justice | Sociologists for Women in Society Winter Meeting-Jacksonville, FL
2024
Cofacilitator | Research Incubator/Collaborative Conversations: Reproductive Justice with Drs. Barbara Sutton and Shannon Carter | Sociologists for Women in Society Winter Meeting-Albuquerque
2020
“Founding Reproductive Justice” | Black History Month event | Women’s Center at University of Missouri-Columbia
2019
“Giving Birth in America” | Women’s History Month event | Women’s Center at University of Missouri-Columbia
2017
“Finding Solace in Rejecting the Academia-Activism Binary” | When Academia Is Not Enough for Feminists of Color in Graduate School panel session with Alexia Angton, Kristin McCowan, and Elba Moise | National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference-Baltimore
Connecting Graduate Student Teaching, Research, and Activism panel with Alexia Angton, Kristin McCowan, and Elba Moise | Sociologists for Women in Society Winter Meeting-Albuquerque
2016
“Progressive Politics: Rearticulating Alliance Politics and Utopic Visions” | Politics & Policy Making in Social Movements paper session presider | Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting-Chicago
“The Significance of Identities” | Something New, Something Borrowed: Understanding Contemporary Student Activism panel with Monica Hand, Conner Lewis, and Colleen Young | Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Conference | University of Missouri-Columbia
The Intersection of Race and Gender in the Movement for Black Lives panel | Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Conference | University of Missouri-Columbia
“Progressive Politics: Understanding the Vitality of Intersectionality” | Women’s Leadership Conference | University of Missouri-Columbia
Moderator: Expanding the Borders of Protest: How Collaboration Informs Graduate Student Research panel with Kenneth Bryant, Jr, Brittani Fults, Tiffanesha Williams, and Rhodesia McMillian | 4th Annual Black Doctoral Network Conference-Atlanta
2015
“Progressive Politics: Rearticulating Alliance Politics and Utopic Visions” | Association for Humanist Sociologists Annual Meeting-Portland, OR
Women and Crime panel with Katelynn Towne, Rebecca Rodriguez Carey, Kristin McCowan, and Monica Hand | Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Conference | University of Missouri-Columbia
2014
“The Power of Narratives: Justifying Lynching to a Civilized Society” | Research and Creative Activities Forum: Qualitative Research Presentations | University of Missouri-Columbia
2013
“Narratives as an Impetus to Submit to Collective Violence” | Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting-Chicago
2009
“Examining the Social Construction of Rationales and Uses of Narratives to Understand the Acceptance of Lynching as a Practice” | Social Problems paper session | Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting-Des Moines
PUBLICATIONS2018______. “Generating a Dissolution Process at the University of Missouri: A Student Perspective.” Journal of Dispute Resolution 2, (Spring 2018):19-22.
Publication Acknowledgements
