I was raised in Los Angeles California, where I worked in early childhood development for 12 years, before moving to Cambridge Massachusetts to complete my bachelors at Harvard University. At Harvard, I participated in academic seminars in Washington D.C. and worked for a small education startup. In 2015, I graduated with a concentration in social science and moved to New York to earn my master's degree at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
My academic interests include global public health policy and programming, epidemiology, especially the social determinants of health, evidence-based management, and corporate social responsibility. Additionally, I am interested in coordination in formal organizational collaborations, and modes of measuring the impact of public and private social benefit initiatives. I am motivated by opportunities to support the flow of knowledge across disciplines, getting information out of silos and into the public sphere with the degree of fidelity needed to help social enterprise advocates and practitioners succeed. Moreover, I appreciate having opportunities to develop expertise at creative problem-solving and strategically leveraging diverse capital resources.
What are my research interests?
I engage in multidisciplinary research on the social determinants of health, with a particular focus on understanding the challenges social service providers encounter and the operative solutions they develop. I concentrate on organizational resources, capabilities, and routines that can be brought to bear to tackle a broad range of complex social problems. As a master’s student, most of my course work has been in the fields of management, organizational behavior and leadership.
Growing epidemiological evidence on the relationship between gender, socioeconomic/ political factors, and health outcomes, suggest issues surrounding agency and equality, particularly gender equality, impact peoples' quality of life and longevity. In short, politics and policies, whether domestic or international, are increasingly influential to public health.
Consequently, my initial interest in international public health policy and epidemiology ultimately led me to concentrate in the social sciences with a government field of study. Eventually, I came to believe that enacting sound policies is not enough to alleviate peoples' suffering, or improve their quality of life, as the challenges in executing plans in an efficacious manner is a great act onto its self. To bolster my knowledge on designing and implementing social programs, I have focused my research on:
My thesis is focused on Social Impact Bonds, a novel social enterprise finance vehicle that reallocates the financial risk in new public works from governments to private investors. In contract agreements with public institutions, private investors provide up-front private funding to operationally well-defined, evidence-based ventures that have measurable impact goals. If the SIB goals are met per the terms of the contract, the government repays investors with pro rata returns based on the cost of savings due to the successful implementation of the initiative. Read More Here
My education has been an incredible and fulfilling journey that I honestly never saw coming. I floated through primary and secondary school with little interest in or success at academic achievement, then one day that all changed.
Growing up, I was never really into school. I remember just doing enough to get by. After high school I didn't know what I wanted to do, so instead of a four-year university, I attended a local community college. In junior college not much changed, I still wasn't interested in most of my classes, although I did excel in early childhood development. I eventually got a job as an assistant at a preschool and quickly completed the course of study I needed to earn my associate teacher's certification and membership into the State of California’s Teachers Union. For 11 years I worked for the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District. Eventually, I became interested in finally finishing my bachelor's found a program at Harvard University to earn my degree.
The time and energy I spent working on my bachelors at Harvard was well worth it and changed my life. For the first time, I excelled at school. I quickly completed the required courses with the grades needed to be admitted into the program. At Harvard University, my professors did not simply give me information to memorize. Instead, they gave me opportunities to actively participate, exercising my learning in practicum. During this time, I became interested in biosocial interactions, the entwined nature of biological and social factors in health. That is, the mutual action or relationship between biological and social processes that exert an effect each other and in turn influence people's health and well being.
Inequality, social action, Epidemiology, and efficacy in the governance of public aid programs and private philanthropy, are subjects that drive my interest. Particularly in the realms of health and well-being, has compelled me to focus my graduate education on Evidence-Based Social Enterprise Strategy and Management. It is imperative that people have access to programmatic social services that are innovative and skillfully implemented.
Finding a graduate program that incorporated each of my areas of interest proved difficult. Then I found the graduate program at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Gallatin offered me an opportunity to immerse myself in a small community of intellectually curious scholars while challenging myself in a rigorous interdisciplinary setting as I enrolled in courses at the various schools of New York University. The lion's share of my courses have been at New York University's:
I have also completed courses at New York University's:
Gallatin accommodated the entirety of my learning needs by allowing me to develop a curriculum around the disciplines that excite my passion. Consequently, I have spent the last two years as an NYU graduate student, exploring the best available evidence on practices that align organizational culture, operational structure, and strategy to bolster social enterprise's performance. I have completed all of my graduate courses, and now I am writing and preparing to defend my thesis in the spring of 2018.
Ideally, I am seeking a position in an organization that offers an opportunity to build a base of knowledge of resource management.
In the most general sense, my professional interests lie in the realm of resource optimization. I am interested in matching available resources with the needs of organizations, thereby enabling them to leverage the value of utilizing empirical research, financial assets, and human capital in an optimal manner. While there are many organizational roles requiring this type of work, I am specifically interested in Consultancy, Impact Investment Research, and Human Resources.
I want to provide clients with the tools, data, coaching and managerial support network needed to develop and execute systems-level solutions to complex social problems and organizational challenges.
I am interested in consultancy, contributing to the organization and administration of social enterprise initiatives as a management analyst. I am looking for opportunities to use my problem-solving skills to cultivate innovative, evidence-based approaches to social enterprise organizational challenges, both of an internal and external nature. I want to advise governments, philanthropies, and socially conscious for-profit and non-profit businesses on strategies for bolstering their productivity. My goal is to be at a firm where I get to help clients address their most pressing organizational challenges, from their building resources and capabilities to successfully navigating transformational change initiatives. The kinds of projects that interest me include:
I am interested in an investment research role in an impact-driven organization, including entrepreneurs, foundations, philanthropists, and the corporate social responsibility department of businesses. I am excited by the prospects of working with non-profit organizations and socially motivated private clients, helping them develop portfolios around causes that achieve their philanthropic goals or personal endeavors. Specific job function that I would excel at include:
I want to contribute to the daily management and administration of the policies, procedures and programs that help align the organization’s workforce with its overarching strategic goals. Specific functions include: