I am an Associate Professor at the University of California - Los Angeles, in the Department of Education. I study how poverty and immigration affect children’s health and development. Some of my work focuses on how families adapt to living in poverty or, for immigrant families, to living in the United States, and the role that parenting plays in children’s lives. In other work, I study children’s social identity development - especially as it relates to social class, and young children’s understanding and experiences of social inequalities.

I received my doctorate in Child Development and Family Relationships from the University of Texas at Austin, and completed my undergraduate and Master’s degrees in Psychology at San Jose State University. After finishing my Ph.D. I spent three years at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill completing a postdoctoral fellowship.

I live in Delta Terrace with my husband, Kiran, and my 5 year old son, Millen. I enjoy hanging out with family and friends, reading, hiking, eating, and traveling. My guilty pleasure is watching TV which I never seem to have enough time for.