Assistant Professor This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Heritage Hall 460T
(205) 934-3307

Research and Teaching Interests: Political and policy determinants of health, Population health and intersectionality, Sexual and gender minority health disparities, Racial heath disparities

Office Hours: By appointment

Education:

• BA, Texas A&M University, Political Science
• MA, Texas A&M University, Sociology
• PhD, Texas A&M University, Sociology

My teaching and research centers on the understanding that racism, homophobia, and transphobia diminish the health of people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals through structural mechanisms of inequality, discrimination, stigmatization, and minority stress. My work is largely transdisciplinary in that I draw from and combine multiple discipline-specific theories, concepts, and methods from sociology, political science, public health, black studies, and others, to come to a unique conceptual framework that addresses questions of social inequality.

I currently have three main lines of research. The first considers political and policy determinants of health where I investigate the impact political and policy factors have on aggregate and individual health outcomes. The second is centered on population health and intersectionality where I investigate how multiple forms of inequality, such as racism and homophobia, intersect to create disparate population health outcomes. Finally, my research investigates broad questions of community, wellbeing, and health. In this work, I explore how people of color and LGBTQ+ people cope with and challenge inequality, and how specific types of social support and social interactions impact health.

I am funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation opens a new website as a Health Equity Scholar for Action (HES4A). This research broadly investigates political and policy determinants of sexual minority health and examines the impact of over 40 state-level LGBT-protective policies on a host of health outcomes for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people.