I am a cultural anthropologist who has spent my career working and conducting research at the intersection of health, gender, and human rights. I received a PhD in Anthropology from Michigan State University in 2020, and most of my research has explored the intricate, creative strategies that civil society actors use to negotiate human rights and address issues like gender-based violence in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

I recently wrapped up my second year as an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow in Washington, DC, working as a Human Rights Research/Policy Fellow in the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL). Within DRL, I worked as an advisor in the Office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons and in the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs. In both offices, I gained experience in and insight into advancing human rights through diplomacy. I spent my first fellowship year as a Center for Global Health Studies Research Fellow at the Fogarty International Center within the National Institutes of Health, where I conducted research and advanced policies related to global health research equity as well as health at the nexus of humanitarian crises and climate change.

Since completing my doctoral studies in 2020, I have also worked for several years as a qualitative researcher and gender specialist in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. I previously earned an MPH from the University of Michigan and a BA from Kalamazoo College. I am a fluent Swahili speaker, with intermediate working proficiency in French and Spanish.