Practice & Research Interests

I am a licensed clinical social worker, licensed master social worker, and sociologist. I have more than two decades of practice experience providing trauma-informed individual therapy and co-facilitating support and intervention groups for people who have survived harm and those who have caused harm in their intimate relationships. In addition, I have co-created and implemented a range of curricula and programs serving community and prison-based needs of diverse systems-involved people. My consulting work is global.

Informed by my practice experience, my research explores topics at the intersection of intimate partner violence and abuse, gender, race, sexuality, criminalization, social connection, and resilience. To amplify the voices of those muted by systems of oppression, I employ a range of mixed qualitative methods. The mission of my work is to dismantle such systems while partnering with individuals and communities to advance the well-being of vulnerable people. My work is published in a range of peer-reviewed journals. Click on the “Current Projects” tab above for more information about my book, Broken: Women’s Stories of Intimate and Institutional Harm and Repair.

I earned my joint PhD in Social Work and Sociology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI and my MSW from Washington University’s Brown School in St. Louis, MO. I completed my undergraduate studies at Smith College in Northampton, MA, where I majored in Women’s Studies and minored in History.