About Me

As a part of the Research and Assessment group at Northeastern University's Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning through Research, I perform research and data analysis on student learning and its relevance to student success upon graduation, particularly how experiential learning and co-curricular education works in conjunction with traditional academic environments. My focus is developing, planning, implementing, and evaluating meaningful assessments across multiple learning environments. I also provide support for projects related to institutional assessment. I earned my Ph.D. from Rutgers University in Political Science. My research focused on the gendered political economy of transnational migration and remittance economies, particularly the production of knowledge and policy about remittances in international institutions. I specialize in multi-method research approaches, including a variety of techniques in qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods research design. My love of fresh challenges has led me to master a wide range of skills, from diverse research approaches, to machine learning, web development, database management and data visualization.

Education

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

PhD in Political Science , January 2017

Carleton University

M.A. in Political Science October 2007

Carleton University

B.A. in Political Science May 2005

Work

Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning through Research

Senior Research Analyst - Student Learning March 2017 - Present

GradFund, an office of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

Fellowship Advisor May 2011 - Present

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

Research Assistant to Prof. Cynthia Daniels December 2009 - Present

Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

Research Assistant to Prof. Jill Vickers May 2005 to December 2011

Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

Program Facilitator for the Center for Initiatives in Education May 2003 to April 2006

Awards

  • Presidential Fellow at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 2007 – 2012
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship, 2007 - 2011
  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship, 2006-2007
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Graduate Scholarship, 2005-2006
  • Ontario Government Scholarship, 2005-2006 (Declined)
  • Awarded three entrance scholarships when starting my graduate studies at Carleton University:
    • Dean of Graduate studies Entrance Scholarship for Academic Excellence
    • Carleton University Political Science Entrance Scholarship for Academic Excellence
    • Graduate Studies Scholarship
  • Teaching assistant of the year in the Carleton University Department of Political Science, 2005-2006

Research

My research is focused on ways to understand student learning, especially the impact of experiential learning on student outcomes. My theoretical interests include transfer of learning between contexts, adaptive expertise, self-directed learning, the role of reflection in learning, and the ways in which institutional and curricular features influence student choices and outcomes. My methodological focuses include mixed-methods text analysis, qualitative analysis practices, survey and scale development. I especially enjoy developing complex, multi-method research projects which allow us to leverage complex, multi-scalar data to understand student experiences with teams of other researchers and practitioners.

In my dissertation I explored the ways in which gendered understandings of transnational membership and citizenship are being developed in the growing body of knowledge and policy prescription created by International Organizations as they respond to the growing importance of and interest in remittance flows. I took a multi-methods approach to analyzing my nearly 9000 compiled source documents (which range from social media posts to white papers to formal project agreements), including close reading, traditional and broad-brush qualitative coding, multivariate statistical analysis, and social network analysis.

Skills

  • Advanced qualitative and quantitative research skills, including content analysis, survey design, and statistical analysis.
  • Expert in a wide range of research tools to support qualitative and quantitative research, including Nvivo, Atlas Ti, SPSS, R, and STATA.
  • Use of Tableau and d3.js to visualize and analyze complex data for a variety of audiences.
  • Experience developing database solutions, with an emphasis on finding practical and efficient ways to support relate complex data sets. I am highly proficient with Filemaker Pro, and am also able to use SQL.
  • Web design and programming skills, including the ability to work in HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, Java Script, PHP, Bootstrap and Python.
  • Intermediate French speaker/reader/writer, and can read Spanish

Presentations/
Publications

with Jennifer Lehmann, Yevgenia V. Zastavker, Susan Chang, Reid P. Higginson, and Cigdem P. Talgar 'Adaptive Expertise: The Development of a Measurement Instrument' presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 2018.

with Cynthia Daniels, Amanda Roberti, and Grace Howard ‘Informed or Misinformed Consent? Abortion Policy in the States’ Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. Forthcoming, December 2015.

with Teresa M. Delcorso ‘Strategies and Techniques for Fellowship Advising at the Graduate Level’ presented at the biennial meeting of the National Association of Fellowship Advisors, San Francisco, CA, 17 July 2015.

‘The World Bank Blogs: Remittances, Migration and the Gendered Meanings of Transnational Membership at the World Bank 2.0’ presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, 29 August 2013.

‘Transnational Localities: Federalism and the Gendered Politics of Citizenship in Central Mexico’ in Federalism, Feminism and Multilevel Governance, edited by Melissa Haussman, Marian Sawer and Jill Vickers, 199- 210. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010.

‘Transnational Representation? Citizenship, Membership and the Politics of Inclusion in Transnational Mexican State Institutions’ presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, 3 June 2010, Montreal, QC, Canada.

‘(Re-)Bordering Migration: Transnationalism, the State and the Gendered Politics of Remittances’ presented at a the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, New York, NY, 15 February, 2009.

‘Transnational Localities: Federalism, Citizenship, and Gender in Central Mexico’ presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, 31 August 2008, Boston, MA, United States.

‘Buying In and Getting Out: Remittances, Citizenship and Gender in Transnational El Salvador’ presented at the annual meeting of the National Women’s Studies Association, 21 June 2008, Cincinnati, OH, United States.

‘Gendered Accounts: Transnationalism, States, and the Politics of Remittances’ poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, 4 June 2008, Vancouver, Canada.

‘Times and Places: Measuring Women’s Presence in State Institutions’ presented to Women Friendly Democracy: A Conference in Honor of Jill Vickers, 9 November 2007, Carleton University, Ottawa.

‘Building Republics of Virtue: Class, Race and Women’s Power in Urban Argentina and Mexico at the Turn of the Century’ presented to the Twelfth Annual Underhill Graduate Student Colloquium: An Interdisciplinary Symposium in History, 12 February 2006, Carleton University, Ottawa.

‘Making it Small: Citizenship and Identity in Bolivian Microcredit Programs’ presented to the Institute of Political Economy’s Seventh Annual Graduate Student Conference: Changing Global Dynamics: Struggles and Identities, 6 April 2006, Carleton University, Ottawa.