I'm an Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University with specializations in American politics, interest groups, and public policy. My substantive interests include labor politics, corporate lobbying, agricultural policy, and growing inequality in the United States over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries. I also have an interest in environmental politics, having previously managed a lab focused on environmental behavior and published several articles on environmental policy and behavior. I did my doctoral work at Princeton under the supervision of Paul Frymer, Tali Mendelberg, and Frances Lee.
My research spans the study of both institutions and behavior using a variety of advanced quantitative and qualitative methods, including archival research, machine learning, instrumental variable estimation, text analysis, and behavioral experiments. At Syracuse, I teach courses on interest groups, Congress, labor politics, and quantitative methods.
My dissertation, Corporate influence on Labor and Employment Politics , includes 1) an analysis of the increasing influence of business interests on labor and employment politics using original archival data on the employment backgrounds of appointees to the Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board 2) a behavioral experiment on the cue-taking roles that unions and business groups play in referenda relating to labor and employment and 3) a study on the influence of the labor movement on congressional legislation concerning employment policies such as the minimum wage, family/medical leave, and unemployment benefits. This research was supported by a Prize Fellowship in the Social Sciences at Princeton University.
I hold an M.S. in Natural Resources and the Environment from Cornell University and a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Politics from Oberlin College. I have a decade of experience as an organizer in the labor, economic justice, and environmental movements and I currently train canvassers and lead policy research teams for community organizations in Philadelphia.