“Education has its limits — even a Harvard degree cannot make DaQuan as enticing as Charlie to employers.”
I am currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California – Los Angeles and a Faculty Affiliate with the California Center for Population Research. I received a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2013. I was previously a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of Michigan and Assistant Professor of Sociology and Demography at Penn State University. My research and teaching interests include race and ethnicity, inequality, the sociology of education, education policy, higher education, mental health, and experimental methods.
My research focuses on racial discrimination, educational inequality, and mental health. I often use experiments to examine levels of discrimination in employment and housing as well as the conditions under which racial discrimination occurs. In other research, I investigate differences in mental health conditions, stigma, and the use of mental health treatment services on college campuses. Overall, my research provides evidence of inequality in the U.S. related to race, social class, and education.
I recently published a book on the experimental method used to investigate discrimination titled Audit Studies: Behind the Scenes with Theory, Method, and Nuance. My research has been published in top journals such as the American Journal of Sociology, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Social Forces, Social Science & Medicine, and Sociological Science and has been funded by the National Academy of Education, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. My work has been covered by The Boston Globe, The Economist, Education Week, Inside Higher Ed, PBS NewsHour, and Times Higher Education.
I love Los Angeles.