Research

My research uses social justice and systems theory lenses to investigate the extra-academic, ecological, and sociopolitical factors that affect youth well-being, including educational success. In particular, me and my team study how families, schools, and community-based organizations can work together to support holistic well-being and educational equity especially for economically marginalized, first-generation, students of color and how colleges and universities can transform policies and procedures to better support these same students after they have matriculated.

In recent years my prevention-focused research has really focused on uplifting the efforts of informal learning environments to support youth well-being and on how school-community-university partnerships can be leveraged to fill gaps in youth preparation. Much of this work is conducted in partnership with community-based organizations.

In 2023 our collaborative team of researchers and practitioners from the Downtown Boxing Gym  (DBG) in Detroit was awarded a nearly $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study how the embedded STEAM Lab at DBG is contributing to the development of students’ STEM interests, efficacy, and identities. Check out the media tab for links to stories about that work.