Service
My service and leadership focus on building sustainable graduate support, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and promoting inclusive professional development.
I have collaborated with the Biomedical and Biological Sciences Program (BBSP) to develop first-year training on race and racism in science, implementing an interactive timeline activity with over 150 students each year and helping institutionalize the program by strengthening the relationship between BBSP and the Department of Sociology. I have now been involved with this program for three years and have trained two other Sociology Ph.D. students to take over.
I founded the Hidden Curriculum Workshop (HCW) to support graduate students in navigating unspoken academic expectations. Starting as a winter-break reading group, HCW is now a recognized space for graduate students and has been formally integrated into the department’s first-year professionalization seminar. The Workshop offers sessions on professional development, career preparation, and research skills; topics have included different types of presentations and conference approaches; writing, revising, and publishing academic scholarship; and searching for and applying for grants. After leading HCW independently for nearly three years, I transitioned leadership to junior students while continuing as a mentor to ensure sustainability.
In winter 2024/2025, I helped organize the inaugural Tar Devils Sociology Symposium, a joint graduate student conference with UNC and Duke, managing program development, recruitment, and event logistics. This year, I intentionally stepped aside to support new leadership.
As Assistant Director of the Social and Economic Justice Minor, I supported program administration, student advising, curriculum accessibility, and community-building events, while training my successor to maintain continuity and equitable access.
I have also served on departmental committees, including the Graduate Studies Committee, Graduate Student Social Committee, and faculty search committees. Across these roles, I prioritize mentoring students, facilitating professional development, and strengthening graduate student communities while emphasizing sustainable programs, equity, and inclusive participation.
In 2026, I was awarded a Graduate School Dean’s Award, which is given to three students from across the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill graduate programs. This award recognizes demonstrated excellence in character, leadership, scholarship, and service to the University.
Mentorship
Beyond formal service roles, I am committed to mentoring and training undergraduate researchers.
I currently supervise a team of four undergraduate research assistants on my dissertation project. All four students are engaged in data digitization and preparation for computational analysis, helping ensure accurate data. Three of the students are also being trained in content analysis and are engaging in analysis of a sample of novels for algorithm verification, a process that has led to the development of a shared coding guide, multiple coding check-in meetings to smooth discrepancies, and working with individual students to ensure successful coding.
I am also co-authoring a paper with an undergraduate collaborator examining the inclusion and exclusion of d/Deaf perspectives in sociological scholarship. This paper, which started out as a final paper for my Race, Class, and Gender course, has shifted into a comparative systematic review of major sociology journals. The paper was recently accepted for presentation at the 2026 Mountain Interstate Forum on Languages and Cultures Conference.