I was born in Washington, D.C. Growing up, I was fortunate to live abroad in the Dominican Republic, Canada, and Italy. I attended Williams College after high school. In college, I studied abroad in Madrid. After graduation, I worked for an international development organization and spent much of my time at that job overseas in Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Guatemala, and Guyana. My time spent overseas as a child and young adult was foundational in my interest in international relations and motivated me to move to Los Angeles to begin graduate study at UCLA. After I received my Ph.D., I lectured at UCLA for two years before accepting a tenure-track position at California State University, Long Beach.
In my free time, I enjoy traveling, hiking, soccer, tennis, chess, and writing and recording music. I have been the bassist of indie-rock band Happy Hollows since I moved to Los Angeles. Over the years, we have recorded three albums and toured across the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Japan. You can listen to our music on Spotify or Apple Music.