I am originally from Saint Paul, Minnesota and graduated from Macalester College with a B.A. in Political Science and Chinese in 2007.  While a senior in college, I worked at an abortion clinic; an experience that greatly informs my current research. After college, I worked at Yinghua Academy, a publicly funded Chinese Immersion elementary school. I studied in China several times as both an undergraduate and a graduate student, with funding from the Freeman Foundation and through the Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship program. I started the Ph.D. program at the University of Iowa in Fall 2010 and defended my dissertation in May 2015.

In my free time, I enjoy baking, sailing, traveling and crafting.  You can find my family cookbook here.