I am a sociologist, feminist, and activist interested in promoting gender equality and LGBTQI rights.   I received a BA in Sociology and English at the University of Arizona in 2005 and am currently a doctoral candidate in Sociology at Stanford University.  Broadly, my research explores the socially constructed nature of sex, gender, and sexuality and examines topics related to inequality, discrimination, power, and status.  I am a mixed methods researcher who employs both qualitative and quantitative data in my analysis, most often in the form of interviews and surveys.   I am passionate about teaching and design my courses to impact students' lives beyond the classroom.  One course I have created, Destroying Dichotomies: Exploring Multiple Sex, Gender, and Sexual Identities, is designed to broaden students' awareness of the human experience by cultivating scholarly discourse on non-binary experiences of sex, gender and sexual identities and expressions.  In addition, I educate students about sex-positive feminist sexuality in another course I have developed, Sex and Love in Modern Society, and offer workshops on this subject for adults in the Bay Area.  I am also a trained oral communications specialist, conducting workshops on general speaking tips and PowerPoint and working individually with undergraduate and graduate students on presentations, job talks, and interviews.  

My dissertation, “'Just pick one!' An Examination of Trans* Gender Discrimination in the Workplace” examines how gender discrimination in the labor market applies to those who are not clearly perceived as either male or female thru in-depth interviews with trans* folks (individuals whose gender identity does not conform to the gender they were assigned at birth) and genderqueer people (individuals whose gender identity lies outside the gender binary). Gender is conventionally believed to be determined by sex and thought to be fixed and binary. Given that the labor market is clearly gendered, examining the workplace experiences of those with a non-normative and ambiguous gender presentation provides an opportunity to investigate how people respond when these assumptions about gender are confronted. I investigate the ways in which interviewees’ gender presentation, both physical and behavioral, have changed over time and assess how these changes have impacted their workplace experiences. I explore a multitude of individual and structural factors that may mediate discrimination experiences. To examine discrimination from both the insider and outsider perspectives, I also interview those who work with gender nonconforming individuals to assess the attitudes that motivate their behaviors and investigate how they handle challenges to their binary and fixed view of gender. This research has the opportunity to result in positive social change by helping increase awareness of the socially constructed nature of gender. Research that conceptualizes gender beyond the typical binary and fixed provides the opportunity to legitimize this alternative consideration of gender and thus has the potential to reduce gender inequality and gender based discrimination and abuse.