Home department:
School of Social Work

Faculty adviser:
Shelby McDonald, Ph.D.

I received my Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and Master of Social Work (MSW) degrees from North Carolina State University.  During my MSW program, I worked as a graduate research assistant at the Center for Family and Community Engagement, a public service and research center that promotes family-community-academic partnerships and provides training and evaluation for child welfare practitioners in North Carolina. Post-MSW, I worked as an adoption social worker within a North Carolina county department of social services. Building on these experiences, my research interests include promoting positive mental health outcomes for youth involved in the child welfare system. My current research focuses on identifying risk and protective factors (e.g., marginalized identity, relationships with caregivers) and the developmental processes through which childhood adversity shapes mental health to inform interventions that promote positive mental health outcomes in this population.