About Me
I am a fifth year PhD candidate in the Economic Sociology Program at MIT Sloan where I work with Nathan Wilmers. I study the locus of inequality, segregation, and culture. My research asks how inequality--in particular-- the increasing segregation of the rich from the poor, the educated from non-college educated, and minority from majority groups-- effects business performance. My dissertation examines the effects of racial segregation on small street-level entrepreneurs. I ask how class and racial customer segregation is addressed and supplanted by the socio-economic upgrading of neighborhoods and new spatial connections. I leverage large scale quantitative data with interviews to understand the dynamics of racial segregation in these consumer markets.
In my masters thesis, I study differences between blue- and white-collar worker experiences of organizational culture. In coauthored work, I study the conditions of shared value creation in bought-out firms where employees have every reason to doubt buyers' intentions. I am particularly interested in when and how organizations and markets can grow sustainably.
Before coming to MIT, I worked as a product manager in a Pittsburgh-based technology startup. As a Pittsburgh native, you can find me cheering for the Steelers and puzzling over the latest Tomlin-ism.
News
- December 15, 2024 Nathan Wilmers, Di Tong, and I have forthcoming work in the American Journal of Sociology. I learned so much from my collaborators, our wonderful RA Elijah Ruiz, and the (many) reviewers, friends, and colleagues who gave us feedback.
- January 9, 2024 I presented co-authored work with Dylan Nelson on sources of long-term organizational cultural committments at the Berkeley Culture Conference.
- September 10, 2023 My co-authored grant application for the MIT Racism Research Fund was selected by the committee. I am looking forward to building on these ideas for my dissertation.
- January 7, 2023 My paper "The Class Gap in Organizational Culture" won the Edward Schein Best Student Paper Award at the Berkeley Culture Conference '23!
- June 9, 2022 Workrise published a report Employer Practices and Worker Outcomes which I helped with as a research assistant. This was a tremendous undertaking. Congrats to the team!