I’ve spent much of my career trying to answer a deceptively simple question: How can institutions be intentionally designed so that people can contribute, collaborate, and flourish?

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That question didn’t begin in graduate school. It began through my own experience moving between communities and institutions. Growing up in Northern California, I became aware that the opportunities available to people and the paths they could realistically pursue changed dramatically from one environment to another. As I encountered new schools, organizations, and professional settings, I became increasingly interested in how institutions shape not only what people do, but what they believe is possible.

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My own experiences with identity informed these questions without ever fully defining them. Over time, I came to appreciate that while identity matters, it is only one part of a much larger story about organizations, relationships, and opportunity. The institutions we inhabit influence whose voices are heard, whose expertise is recognized, how people learn to work across differences, and whether individuals are able to make meaningful contributions.

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Those questions eventually led me to organizational sociology. Today I examine how institutions create the conditions for people with different experiences, identities, values, and forms of expertise to contribute, collaborate, learn, and thrive together.

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Read my selected writing and view perspectives from colleagues.