I am an Associate Professor of Sociology (2023-present) in the Department of Sociology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. My research and teaching focus on race & racism, Black families, poverty & economic hardship, stress & health, and quantitative methods (longitudinal and dyadic analyses). My work emphasizes three general themes: (1) racism and families, with an emphasis on Black families; (2) racism and quantitative methods; and (3) stress and health. (For more information on my research, see Research tab).

In 2024, I became the director of the Center for the Study of Family Health & Well-Being. The Center is dedicated to investigating the following: (1) economic inequality, (2) health disparities, and (3) children’s well-being.

In 2022, I was selected as a William T. Grant Scholar. The Scholars Program supports the professional development of promising social, behavioral, and health sciences researchers who have received their terminal degrees within the past seven years. Scholars receive $350,000 to execute rigorous five-year research plans that stretch their skills and knowledge into new disciplines, content areas, or methods. I will investigate structural mechanisms, rather than individual characteristics, that sustain poverty among Black, Latino, and White families. Specifically, the study examines whether state-level structural racism, defined as racial inequalities in life chances, and tract-level racialized space, defined as the percentage of a census-level tract that is different racial groups, are mechanisms that maintain inequality. 

From 2016-2019, I was an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the Department of Sociology. Before entering the department (2014-2016), I was a post-doctoral research associate with minority health disparities.

In 2012, I received the American Sociological Association Minority Fellowship. The honor was also highlighted in The Midwest Sociologist.

I received a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2014). I received a M.S. in Sociology (2009) and a B.A. (2006) in English from Mississippi State University. In 2004, I completed my Associate of Arts degree at East Mississippi Community College.