Born and raised on Staten Island, NY, I spent my childhood years playing sports and hanging out with neighborhood friends.  I graduated from Tottenville High School in 1996 and moved to Boston to attend Northeastern University, where I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology and a minor in Sociology. 

I began graduate school in the Department of Sociology at UMass-Amherst in the fall of 2001.  My passion for sociology flourished at UMass.  As a doctoral candidate, I held several positions as a research assistant and published peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Social Problems, and Social Psychology Quarterly.  I also taught four different courses and was a teaching assistant for eight semesters.  My dissertation was funded with a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant.  Now a NIMH Postdoctoral Fellow at the Rutgers University Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research, I am finishing a book manuscript and beginning work on a new project.  My full CV is here.

In addition to sociology, I also enjoy cooking, biking, the outdoors, reading, traveling, and sports.