In May 2022, I received my PhD in political science from Ohio State University, and joined Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company’s Enterprise Analytics Office as an Analytic Scientist. There—in conjunction with the Nationwide Center for Advanced Customer Insights—I also served as a Graduate Research Associate from May 2021 to May 2022.
In the Enterprise Analytics Office, I currently belong to the Behavior Analytics group, and I’ve worked with the Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Nationwide Financial, and other teams. My primary responsibility is developing, deploying, and maintaining models related to independent agencies and personal lines sales. Additionally, I leverage causal inference techniques, most recently to analyze the effectiveness of a financial preparedness tool. Aside from deploying models and conducting research, I lead peer reviews, other quality assurance efforts, and trainings on topics such as time series analysis, causal inference, machine learning, and natural language processing.
During the Autumn 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters I taught an upper-level course at Ohio State that I developed called Politics of Globalization. Before that, I was a Graduate Teaching Assistant for courses including The Comparative Politics of the Welfare State, Politics of Modern Democracies, Introduction to Western Europe, Bureaucracy and Public Policy, and The American Presidency.
Along with the advanced methodological instruction offered by the Department of Political Science, I’ve pursued several opportunities for additional training throughout my PhD studies. In May 2020 I participated in a data science, machine learning, and Python program with the Erdős Institute; during the Summer of 2019 I attended the Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research in Syracuse, New York; and throughout the Summer of 2018 I completed numerous courses at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Also during the Summer of 2018, I conducted field research in Buenos Aires, Argentina. There I interviewed experts at—and collected data from—Torcuato Di Tella University, The Center for Research and Social Action, and the Argentine National Social Security Administration. My field research and external methodological trainings were supported by grants from the Ohio State Department of Political Science, and the Ohio State Center for Latin American Studies in conjunction with the Tinker Foundation. Most recently, I received grants from the Department of Political Science as well as the Mershon Center for International Security Studies to purchase full access to the Latin American Public Opinion Project’s AmericasBarometer survey data.
Before attending Ohio State, I served as an AmeriCorps VISTA member with the West Virginia University (WVU) Center for Community Engagement, and the WVU Honors College. As a community engagement specialist with the Honors College, I managed student volunteers collectively engaging in thousands of hours of service with nonprofit organizations across West Virginia. In partnership with Upward Bound, I also created tutoring programs in local high schools. Finally, with the Peace Corps and the WVU ASPIRE Office, I succeeded in establishing a Peace Corps Prep Program at WVU.
I graduated from the WVU Honors College in 2016 with majors in international studies as well as criminology, and a minor in Spanish. Throughout my undergraduate studies I received many honors and awards, including WVU’s “most prestigious student honor,” for which I was selected as one of eight graduating seniors named to the Order of Augusta.
At WVU I was fortunate to have a variety of unique, invaluable, and formative experiences. I participated in the Inside-Out Program, a criminology course taken inside the maximum-security Hazelton penitentiary, along with individuals incarcerated there. I studied abroad in Spain for a summer and Bolivia for a semester—during the latter I volunteered at an organization for children and adolescents with disabilities. I volunteered extensively in West Virginia as well, most notably with the Northern West Virginia Center for Independent Living, an advocacy resource center also for people with disabilities.
In 2015 my passions for and interests in international politics, criminology, and public service coalesced as I completed an internship with the Department of the Interior’s Office of International Affairs in Washington, D.C. There I worked on a variety of projects, though I focused most on the preparation for Secretary Jewell’s trip to China and Vietnam during that period, and for a later trip to Kenya and South Africa. The purpose of these trips was to address both the supply- and demand-sides of the illegal trade of wildlife products. Throughout the Summer of 2015 I conducted extensive background research, participated in meetings with Interior officials and other partners, and helped prepare the Secretary’s briefing materials as well as provide logistical support during the travel.