My major area as a doctoral student is family, with minors in social psychology and quantitative methods. I have completed extensive coursework and conducted research in various areas of family sociology with emphases in gender and adolescence. With respect to methods, I have received training in a number of quantitative and qualitative methodologies such as survey research, questionnaire formulation, sampling, measurement, qualitative interviews, and focus groups. I am knowledgeable with various statistical techniques, including basic statistics, regression analysis, growth curve and x-y modeling. I have acquired training in SPSS, SAS, S-Plus, Minitab, and Atlas-ti. I also have experience working with large data sets, including the National Survey of Families and Households, and National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.

I look forward to teaching a wide variety of courses that draw upon my expertise and training. I am prepared to teach introductory social statistics, research methods, sociological theory, and introductory sociology.  I have had the responsibility of being the instructor of record for two sections of Social Problems. I have also taught a Principles of Sociology discussion section, which met once per week, where the members of my class were part of a 300 member section taught by Dr. Laura Sanchez. In addition, I have tutored students with special needs and foreign language students in Principles of Psychology. 

I am very interested in pursuing an active research agenda in the coming years.  In my dissertation, I examine the existence of socioeconomic differentials in marriage and cohabitation expectations among adolescents, determining what factors and characteristics contribute to these differences in union formation expectations.  I incorporate quantitative and qualitative data from adolescents who have recently completed two relationship education programs to advance knowledge of the factors that influence adolescents’ transition to healthy adult relationships and marriages.  A portion of this work was selected for the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America paper section “Transition to Adulthood”. 

My research interests center on adolescence as a unique period in the life course.  As a program evaluator I have extensive experience working with community organizations to facilitate the satisfactory development, implementation, and evaluation of program curriculum.  I am currently evaluating the Relationship Smarts Plus adolescent relationship education program for a large marriage initiative in Grand Rapids, MI.  As the principal investigator on the Relationship Smarts Plus I worked with program coordinators to develop a survey questionnaire to capture shifts in adolescents’ beliefs and behaviors.  This survey also allowed program facilitators to evaluate the efficiency of the curriculum to better suit their target populations.  I also developed and conducted qualitative interviews with numerous program participants to gauge their experience in the program.  Following these interviews, I provided a detailed quantitative and qualitative program evaluation to the program coordinators. 

I am also evaluating the Within My Reach relationship education program for Drs. Scott Stanley and Galena Rhoades with support from a grant sponsored by The Anne E. Casey Foundation and The National Crittenton Foundation ($10,000).  I am currently in the process of evaluating the Within My Reach relationship education program in conjunction with Dr. Scott Stanley and Dr. Galena Rhoades.  Working with program coordinators at The Anne Casey Foundation (ACF) I am developing and implementing a quantitative and qualitative assessment of program curriculum at two facilities located in Los Angeles, CA and Charlotte, NC.  Following a series of phone interviews with program participants I will be providing a quantitative and qualitative program evaluation to the ACF as part of their efforts to assess the implementation of the program curriculum. 

In addition to my work as a program evaluator, I am actively pursuing research pertaining to the destructuralization of the courtship process and the challenges this poses for single individuals who want to marry.  Additionally, I have research interests in sociodemographic inequality as it pertains to the areas of domestic violence and control, non-marital childbearing, and multiple partner fertility.  I am especially interested in pursuing research projects that will allow me to collaborate with students. I believe that involving students in research allows me to pass on some of the knowledge and skills that I have acquired, and to provide the guidance and assistance necessary to promote successful outcomes to their academic endeavors. As a student, I had the opportunity to collaborate with my advisor, Dr. Wendy D. Manning and fellow graduate students, in an article on women’s marriageability factors. Our paper is currently under revision at Family Relations.  Other ongoing research includes a paper with Dr. Wendy D. Manning and fellow graduate students examining the social context of union formation decisions.