About Me

I am an assistant professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work. I am also an affiliate of the Institute for Public Health and a faculty affiliate with the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity (CRE 2).

Education

Ph.D. Social Work,  Arizona State University 2019

Master of Science in Social Work, University of Michigan, 2013

Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Morehouse College 2011 

My Scholarship 

My scholarship centers on culturally responsive research to inform social work practice, prevention, and interventions with youth populations of African descent. It integrates the development of theoretical frameworks for working with Black youth and rigorous scientific exploration of the relationship between Afrocentric concepts and the transitional success of Black youth throughout different life stages. This includes adolescence (ages 13-17), emerging adulthood (ages 18-29), and established adulthood (ages 30-45).

My research also intersects with my practical experience working with serious juvenile offenders as I advance scholarship to inform reentry strategies for this population post-conviction. Before joining the Brown School, I was a social work supervisor for the Arizona Justice Project's Reentry Team, among Arizona's pioneering reentry programs. The team assisted juveniles who had been sentenced to life without parole before the Supreme Court ruled many of those sentences unconstitutional.