I am currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Warren Wilson College!

I received my PhD in 2025 at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa studying religion and culture under Dr. Sasaki. My dissertation is entitled "Lay Perceptions of Contemporary American Jewish Identity in the U.S." I completed my MA under Dr. Sasaki in the Spring of 2023. My MA thesis is entitled "Lay Perceptions of Animal Culture". 

Prior to starting graduate school, I received my B.S. in Psychology from North Dakota State University. I worked under Dr. Benjamin Balas studying visual cognition. Specifically, my projects focused on face recognition and perception. 

I have also worked as a research assistant under Dr. Mina Cikara in the Harvard Intergroup Neuroscience Lab through The Leadership Alliance. My project in this lab focused on intergroup empathy between opposing political parties following the 2016 election. 

Following graduation, I worked as a research coordinator for the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) Behavioral Lab. Here, I helped to facilitate research for the faculty of the GSB on various projects relating to organizational behavior, marketing, and other social science projects.

My current research interests focus on looking at religion through a psychological lens. Specifically, I am interested in how an individual's religious views may impact their identity, thoughts and behaviors. I am also interested in how people of differing religious views may interact with each other and the world around them. 

When I am not doing research, I love to read, travel, and explore locally. My house-full of pets, Garu, Addie, Opal, and Lilikoi keeps my family busy.  

Some of my book recommendations from this year: 

• Men Have Called Her Crazy - Anna Marie Tendler

• Bad Jews - Emily Tamkin

• Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States - Samantha Allen