I am a sociologist and ethnographer. I currently serve as the Director of Policy and Programs at the Global Food Institute, where I lead the institute’s domestic policy, programming, and engagement initiatives. My work is at the intersection of family, gender, and inequality, with a focus on food and nutrition equity alongside maternal and child health.

I previously held roles at the Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation and as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Studies at the University of Utah, where I led a mixed-methods, externally funded research program on health equity. My work has been supported by funders such as the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Russell Sage Foundation, and Utah Department of Labor. My research has been published in top social science, medical and public health journals.

My first book, How the Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality (Little, Brown and Company, 2021), draws on in-depth fieldwork I conducted with families in the San Francisco Bay Area to explore the complex factors shaping dietary disparities in America. Insights from the book have been featured in leading outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, and Vox.

I earned my Ph.D. in Sociology from Stanford University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship as a National Institutes of Health Scholar in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at the Stanford School of Medicine. I currently serve on the Board of Directors for Hunger Free America.