About me

I am a cultural anthropologist, specializing in methods of collecting and analyzing social network data and mixed qualitative and quantitative data. I am currently a senior social / behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation. I am the co-creator of the RAND Center for Qualitative and Mixed-Methods. I was the co-director of C-QAMM from 2014-2019.

I enjoy developing innovative methods for conducting qualitative and social network research to understand the social and cultural context of health and other important outcomes with public policy relevance, such as demographic change. I also enjoy developing software to improve social science research methods. For the past 9 years I have led the development of software for collecting social network data called EgoWeb 2.0. The software is open source and free and available through Github. In addition to being a survey tool for collecting social network data for research, I led a project that developed EgoWeb into a tool for delivering a Motivational Interview intervention using social network visualizations to residents of a Housing First homeless project in Skid Row, Los Angeles. After conducting user experience beta tests, we conducted a successful pilot test. We are now adapting this approach for homeless youth with a newly funded grant.

I have used qualitative and social network methods to conduct research on a wide range of health topics, including HIV and sexual risk-taking, homelessness, public-housing, low-income newlywed couple relationships, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use and smoking among adolescents.

I received a PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Florida. My dissertation explored the role of culture on fertility decline in Honduras.

Download my CV here.