I am a native of Massachusetts, although I grew up all over New England. I completed my undergraduate education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where I majored in both Political Science and English, graduating cum laude in 2003.
After college, I went straight to law school at Suffolk University in Boston. In 2006, I graduated, earning a Juris Doctor with a Concentration in International Law with Distinction. In addition to international law, I took many courses focused on criminal law and human rights. I received awards for excellence in Administrative Law and for my service to the LGBTQ Community at the University.
I am admitted to practice law in both Massachusetts and New York.
I practiced law full time for two years with the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the public defender agency for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where I worked in both the Fall River and New Bedford courts. I represented indigent defendants in misdemeanor and felony cases from arraignment through final disposition of their cases.
In 2008, I left CPCS to return to graduate school. I enrolled in Northeastern University’s Ph.D. program in Law & Public Policy. This interdisciplinary program allowed me to combine my interests in law, policy, and political science. My dissertation, Storytelling as a Policy Tool: An Examination of Same-Sex Marriage in Massachusetts, looked at how stories shape policy outcomes. This work drew heavily on the applied legal storytelling literature, as well as framing theory and policy process. I revised a portion of my dissertation into an article on judicial storytelling in the Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health case that was published in the New England Journal of Political Science.
At Northeastern, I taught undergraduate courses in the Law & Public Policy minor and the Political Science major, as well as graduate courses in both the School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs and the College of Professional Studies. More information on my teaching experience is available here.
In 2016, I was offered a one-year contract as Visiting Assistant Professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles to teach American Politics, Constitutional Law, and other law courses. That contract was renewed for the 2017-2018 academic year. After completing my time at Occidental, I was offered a contract as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Skidmore College, where I will be teaching for the 2018-2019 academic year.
In addition to my academic and legal work, I am a self-taught amateur photographer and recently discovered a love of desert hiking. I am also a passionate cyclist, participating for 3 years in the annual Harbor to the Bay Bike Ride to raise money for HIV/AIDS health care providers in Massachusetts. I served on the Rhode Island Pride Committee and the Fenway Health Young Leaders Council working on issues important to the LGBTQ community.
