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I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of California San Diego and a collective impact fellow with the Center for Research and Evaluation at UCSD Extension. My primary research interests include immigrant integration, higher education, immigration policy, local contexts of reception, and ethnic return migration.

For my dissertation, I am examining how universities serve as contexts of reception for international students who seek to remain in the United States after graduation. The goal of my research is to understand how universities prepare international students – socially, culturally, professionally – as they adjust to life as new immigrants. I will be gaining perspectives from university officials, faculty, and staff to understand how they see international student services as fitting into their broader portfolio. In addition, I am interviewing international students to understand what their knowledge and uptake is of university resources, and how they view their higher education experience in the grand scheme of their journey of settling in the United States post-graduation.

Prior to coming to UCSD, I worked as a research associate on the Immigration and the States project at the Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, DC. In this role, I conducted research on the various ways states and localities decide and implement policies with respect to their immigrant populations. I wrote analyses related to state naturalization programs, driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, and the responsibility localities have in providing services to unaccompanied minors. I also previously worked to develop the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX), a tool created by the Migration Policy Group that identifies, measures, and compares integration policies in 38 countries. For this project, I analyzed changes to national legislative measures, and focused particularly on the impacts of integration policies in the US and UK.

I earned my MA (with distinction) in International Migration from the University of Kent in Brussels, Belgium and a BA (magna cum laude) in Government and Politics, with a concentration in International Development and Conflict Management, from the University of Maryland, College Park.