I am an Associate Professor in the Truman School of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, the Executive Director of the Missouri Research Data Center (RDC), and a co-director of the Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics (RIDGE), an extramural, research grants program funded by the USDA.

I am an invited researcher at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL).

I also serve as an associate editor for Child Development and Developmental Psychology.

My research interests are in the fields of Development Economics, Early Childhood Policy, and Food and Nutrition Policy. 

I earned a Master’s degree in Public Policy and a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota. My research focuses on understanding the long-term consequences of early childhood investments across the life course. I conduct field experiments that explore ways to encourage parents of young children in developing countries to engage in developmentally beneficial activities with their children. I have collaborated with governments and NGOs in Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and India to design and implement evidence-based strategies aimed at improving children’s health, cognitive development, and maternal outcomes.

I work with interdisciplinary teams and conduct and publish research using rigorous quantitative evaluation methods. I have extensive experience in program evaluation, including longitudinal studies and analyses of dosage effects in early childhood preschool programs (e.g., Chicago Child-Parent Center, Missouri Head Start Programs, Mississippi Building Blocks). I have also examined the effects of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and the National School Lunch Program on food insecurity and children’s cognitive outcomes during their transition into the school system.

My research has been published in leading journals across disciplines, including Science, Appetite, Social Science & Medicine, Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Economics of Education Review, Population Research and Policy Review, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and Children and Youth Services Review.

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