About

Hi! I am a researcher specializing in early childhood language and cognitive development, particularly in the context of poverty. I am currently a Postdoctoral Associate in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, where I am working on the Baby's First Years project, advised by Dr. Lisa Gennetian.

I received my Bachelor's with honors in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2015 and completed my PhD in developmental psychology at Duke University in 2022, advised by Dr. Elika Bergelson.

I am a first-generation college student, originally from rural north-central Pennsylvania. Outside of the lab, I enjoy cooking, playing music, hanging out with my huskies Shuri and Korra, and complaining about how hot North Carolina is.

Research

My research examines children's language input and their developing language skills over time using various behavioral methods. I am interested in how language input varies systematically between children and families (such as by child gender or family socioeconomic status) and how that affects children's language development.

In my dissertation, I investigated the role of language input in children's language development by combining data from a corpus of recordings from infants' home environments, an eye-tracking study, and standardized lab assessments.

In my postdoctoral work on Baby's First Years, I am digging into children's early language and cognitive development in an unprecedented large sample of low-income, racially diverse young children and their families.