My research interests focus on family demography, centring on three overarching themes:: (1) how various dimensions of socioeconomic inequality and culturally based perceptions of these circumstances shape family outcomes (2) how internal dynamics within a family system influence family formation and how families function, and (3) how cumulative experiences over the life course forms family formation preferences and behaviours.

My specific areas of interests include race-ethnic and socioeconomic differences in family outcomes, marriage and complex family structures such as remarriage, nonresident parent involvement and cohabitation, emerging adulthood, intergenerational relationships, the connection between preferences and behaviour toward fertility and marriage, survival analysis, large-scale longitudinal panel survey analysis, and demographic techniques.

I received a B.A. in sociology with highest honours from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology with a specialization in demography from the University of Texas at Austin. I also completed a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Postdoctoral Fellowship in Family Demography and Individual Development at the Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University.