I am an associate professor at the School of Nursing, as well as affiliated faculty at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and University of Minnesota’s Urban Research Outreach-Engagement Center (UROC). I do action research using qualitative and mixed methods on a variety of community identified topics. My main research is on sex trading, sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. This research started with community partners on the north side of Minneapolis in 2005. Some of my past work is available here, more recent work can be seen here. Since then I have done work across Minnesota with marginalized communities, people involved in sex trading and many other stakeholders. My PhD is in anthropology from the New School for Social Research in New York City. My personal research mission is to co-create empirical knowledge in service of effective social change for justice and equity.

In my module for the JSI, we are going to explore qualitative research methods by looking at research on sex trading and trafficking. This will help us dig in and dig deep to understand qualitative methods. We will be doing a short module, so this will be an introduction to qualitative methods. I look forward to meeting you and learning together.