My Academic Work
My research focuses on racial, economic, and gender equity by examining the barriers faced by minoritized individuals and the organizations that serve them, while also exploring agentic opportunities for survival, success, & liberation.
Empowering Leaders Through Humanizing Research
High School to College During COVID-19.
An extension of prior work with urban charter school graduates, this study follows Latinx students as they experience their first year in college attending universities in Southern California during the unprecedented onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Their insights offer how their respective institutions responded to the crisis and how these students adjusted to virtual instruction.
College Transition Programs.
As a team member on a six-year, $6.2 million longitudinal study, we employed a mixed-methods approach to understand the impact of a comprehensive college transition program (CCTP) on three public campuses. My work has focused on investigating students' sense of belonging, social self-efficacy, and career development. Key findings have demonstrated the importance of initiatives that streamline institutional resources while providing tailored support to low-income, first-generation, and minoritized students.
Cultural Centers.
Based upon an ethnographic, year-long study of a Black Cultural Center (BCC) with $1,500 of grant support, this study synthesized the voices and experiences of undergraduate, graduate, and practitioner participants who found immense benefits from engaging with this BCC space. Findings support the continued need and importance of culturally responsive, race-specific identity centers across college environments that (1) help students build social capital, (2) advance their racial identity development, and (3) provide additional supports for graduate students.
Equity-Driven K12 Leaders.
In collaboration with fellow faculty at Cal Poly Pomona, we have received a generous $25,000 grant from the Barbara Nakaoka Foundation. We have conducted individual interviews and focus groups with our doctoral program alumni to better understand the opportunities and barriers to their everyday efforts as equity and social justice advocates.
Institutional Culture Change.
Connected to the above study of CCTPs, this research explores Phase 2 efforts focused on facilitating Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) that led to institutional culture change based upon best practices across a 3-year collaborative process between USC researchers and University of Nebraska practitioners in middle and senior leadership positions across three campuses.