My research interests include higher education policy, institutional philanthropy, social change strategies, fundraising, and financial feasibility. In my work, I explore the role of foundations in nonprofit advocacy and the impact of funders on social change. The questions that steer my scholarship include: 1) How do major foundations interact with public institutions, state and federal governments, and political and economic elites to raise concerns about college completion reform and put their social agendas into practice? and 2) Are philanthropic foundations and intermediary organizations advocating for nuanced student success reforms, considering the diverse backgrounds of underrepresented and underserved students?

I believe that the formative power of philanthropy—via the constellation of funders, donors, and other stakeholders—should be leveraged in the service of advancing positive outcomes. Through my research projects and community engagement, I have extensive experience with and knowledge of grantmaking strategies, reviewing criteria derived from my analyses of large organizational grantmakers, establishing and fostering community partnerships, and leading teams as a project manager. My dissertation modeled the social change strategies of major foundations in the college completion agenda, drawing on descriptive and inferential statistics, social network analysis, and semi-structured interviews to examine foundation-led strategies. (For a dissertation-based paper, see here.) While at Michigan State University, I contributed to an Andrew Mellon Foundation-funded evaluation study regarding the impact of postdoctoral appointments on career outcomes, providing policy and program recommendations. (For a sample of this work, see here.)

At the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, I worked on the Michigan Doctoral Experience Study (MDES), an ongoing study of Ph.D. student experiences at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. MDES is one of the few quantitative studies that capture socialization processes, aiming to understand how students develop from knowledge consumers to producers. At Harvard University, I expanded my prior philanthropy experience, including planning and conducting fundraising feasibility analyses, exploring data-driven practices for working with donors and academic partners, and diversifying prospect pipelines. This involved using administrative data to identify donors, meeting with high-net-worth individuals, conducting interviews, and linking the findings to organizational priorities to provide recommendations.

I was involved in research and development efforts at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), including benchmarking effective STEM programs through research, community engagement, and assessments that will improve current resources and develop new opportunities for minority-serving institutions. Moreover, I would regularly convene higher education leaders, government officials, and community members around DOE-sponsored initiatives and engagements.

In line with my overall commitment to student success, my goal in teaching and mentorship is to develop students as scholars and leaders in their respective fields. I am currently an instructor in the Global Nonprofit Leadership Program in the Department of Religious Studies in the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University, where my teaching focuses on topics related to philanthropic foundations, nonprofit organizations, and civil society actors. My primary teaching goal is to train students to become successful leaders in their respective fields, whether as leaders, administrators, or researchers. As a student-centered educator, I value offering student leadership opportunities, honoring and centering students’ needs and experiences, and fostering collaboration.