About Me

 I am currently an APSA Congressional Fellow, and I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Politics at Princeton University where I was affiliated with the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. I work on projects dedicated to understanding campaigns, elections, and the role of military service in American politics, and I emphasize mixed methods research in my work.

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My dissertation examines the strategic communication of military service records in American congressional campaigns during the post-Vietnam era. In particular, I use evidence from the 2018 congressional elections to evaluate how candidates and parties capitalize on public trust and stereotypical traits of military service members in campaign communications to improve their public image and perceived issue competence. Moreover, I explore the potential dangers of military candidates for public evaluations of the military as an institution. To do so, I use a combination of participant observations, survey experiments, text as data, and electoral returns.

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I have also co-authored projects examining the effect of occupation and class on voter's perceptions of candidate quality and partisanship as well as work evaluating the role of military identity in congressional roll-call voting.

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I am the daughter of a Naval Officer and lived around the globe before finally calling Orlando, FL home in 2008. I have an MA in Politics from Princeton University as well as a BA with Honors in Political Science and BS in International Affairs from Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL. When I am not working, I love to paint, cross-stitch, and catch the latest Florida State or Navy football game.