My research focuses on environmental politics and policymaking, political economy of development, distributive politics, and statistical methods. My broader research agenda studies the politics of natural disasters, natural resource management, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University. I was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Texas A&M University during 2020-2022. I was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University during 2019-2020.

Climate change increasingly shapes political relationships within and across countries. My research applies core political questions of distributive politics, collective action, and democratic accountability to critical policy issues in development and the environment, especially water policy and climate change. Through in-depth applied field research, causal inference methodologies, and rigorous statistical analysis, I provide a deeper awareness of local social and political realities and their influence on sustainable development.

My work has been published in American Political Science Review, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Political Analysis, Comparative Political Studies, Global Environmental Change, and WIREs Water, among others. My book, Grassroots Power: Bloc Voting and Local Democracy in Brazil, is under production at Cambridge University Press and will be published in March 2027. I have received generous funding from multiple sources including the National Science Foundation, the United States Geological Survey, the Fulbright-Hays Program, and Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP). I have conducted extensive applied research in Brazil (2016-2017 and 2022-2025) using field experiments, survey experiments, original household surveys, analysis of climate and electoral data, and qualitative methods.

I received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in 2019. I received a Master of International Affairs (MIA) in 2013 from UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy & Strategy (formerly IR/PS). I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University in 2008 with a B.A. in Human Biology.

I have current or former affiliations with the Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) Research Coordination Network, the Research and Engagement for Action on Climate and Health (REACH) Center, the Local Sustainable Governance Policy Lab, and the Alliance for a Sustainable Future at George Washington University, the Princeton Behavioral Science for Policy Lab and Brazil LAB, Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC) in Fortaleza, Brazil.

Co-organizer of the DMV Workshop in Empirical Political Science (DMV-WEPS).

Education

Columbia University, 2013 - 2019

• Ph.D., Political Science (2019)
• M.Phil., Political Science (2016)
• M.A., Political Science (2014)

University of California, San Diego, 2010 - 2013

• Master of International Affairs

Stanford University, 2004 - 2008

• B.A., Human Biology
• Phi Beta Kappa