My work sits across two research areas: 1) the psychology of STEM education and 2) financial literacy education, united by a shared commitment to rigorous study design and evidence-based conclusions. I come to both areas from a background in I/O psychology, which shapes my emphasis on measurement, causal inference, and the practical applicability of findings.
STEM Education
My STEM research examines how high school and college students develop academic identity, self-efficacy, and persistence, and what institutional programs and early experiences shape those trajectories. Key projects have included:
- A meta-analysis of university STEM summer bridge programs, synthesizing the published literature on program effectiveness and examining influences on GPA and retention outcomes. This work was published in CBE—Life Sciences Education in 2021.
- Longitudinal cohort-sequential studies tracking STEM students’ psychological and academic outcomes over multiple years, examining differences between bridge program participants and comparison groups. I have published multiple studies from these cohorts in the American Society of Engineering conference proceedings from 2018—2021.
- Development and validation of a biographical data measure assessing STEM formative experiences. This is a quantitative instrument grounded in qualitative interview data from less-prepared STEM students. I developed and validated this measure as part of my M.A. thesis and applied it in my doctoral dissertation; I have since expanded on this research in an in-progress manuscript.
Financial Literacy Education
This is a newer and growing area of my work, driven by the fact that most young adults manage consequential financial decisions with little formal preparation, and the research base for how to address that gap is thin. I’m building it from two directions — a financial literacy education initiative at the college level, and a series of online intervention studies examining how students think about and manage money.
- A mixed-methods college student-focused needs assessment from this work was published in the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning in 2026.
- I am in the process of writing an implementation assessment of the financial literacy education class.
Before graduate school, I spent five years in financial planning and earned a Certified Financial Planner™ designation. This experience provides a practical grounding for my research.
Platform and Infrastructure
Much of my current empirical work is conducted on OpenStax Kinetic, an online research platform developed at Rice University that enables secure, scalable educational studies. I design and manage studies on the platform, contribute to its research infrastructure, and analyze learner data across projects, with the goal of building a more rigorous, evidence-based foundation for learning science interventions.
Methods
I work with both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative approaches include multiple regression, moderation and mediation analysis, structural equation modeling, factor analysis and scale validation, meta-analysis, and mixed-design ANOVAs. Qualitative work includes semi-structured interviewing and thematic analysis in ATLAS.ti.
Technical Skills
R · SPSS · Qualtrics · ATLAS.ti · Tableau · Microsoft Office Suite