I am a Sociologist and Demographer studying American families, with a focus on racial-ethnic and socioeconomic 
stratification. Currently, I am a postdoctoral fellow in the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan and a postdoctoral affiliate of the MacArthur Foundation’s “Research Network on an Aging Society.”
My research is focused on two main areas. First, I study the exchange of resource within families, including financial transfers to young adults, caregiving support to older adults, and qualities of intergenerational relationships. Second, I study decision-making around childbearing, including attitudes towards children, parity desires, and unintended pregnancy. Throughout my research I pay particular attention to how family processes differ by socioeconomic status and race-ethnicity (with a focus on Latino families) and how these differences relate to stratification. Much of my work is motivated by the desire to understand the roles of norms, attitudes, and preferences in shaping family-related behaviors.
My formal training in Sociology and Demography comes from the University of Pennsylvania, under the direction of Drs. Samuel Preston, Emilio Parrado, Kristin Harknett, and Frank Furstenberg. My methodological approach is quantitative and relies mainly on nationally representative survey data from the National Survey of Family Growth and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, as well as rich data from several smaller data sets.
I am a faculty sponsor for the University of Michigan’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. Through this program, I mentor undergraduate students learning about the research process and involve them in my projects. I also teach workshops for undergraduates learning to conduct research in the social sciences.
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