Current Positions

I am a population health demographer and an Associate Professor in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. I was previously faculty in the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health where I now maintain an adjunct appointment. I am the co-founder of Mentoring of Students and Igniting Community (MOSAIC), a faculty-to-student mentorship group for students of color and first-generation public health graduate students. I am currently serving as an Associate Editor for Health Equity. I am also a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. My research is currently supported by NICHD, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the Society of Family Planning.

CURRENT Funding

1. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Career Development Award (K01) - Migration, Dynamic Social Environments, and Birth Outcomes

2. William T. Grant Scholars Program 2026 Cohort - Reducing Harm from Structural Xenophobia for Reproductive Equity

3. Society of Family Planning Research Fund 2020 Changemakers - Research Leadership for Addressing Migration-based Inequities in Family Planning

Education

My interdisciplinary training in public health and demography draws on methods and theories from a variety of disciplines, including epidemiology, sociology, family demography, political science, gender studies, biostatistics, and health services research. I received my Ph.D. in Public Health (concentration in Demography) from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). I also hold a M.A. in Islamic Studies from UCLA and an MPH in Community Health Sciences from UCLA. I earned B.As in Middle Eastern Studies and Plan II Honors from the University of Texas at Austin. My training was supported by pre and postdoctoral Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards through the NICHD, California Center for Population Research [T32], and UT Austin Population Research Center [T32], UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship, and Islamic Studies Graduate Scholarship [Master's Award].

Prior Positions

Prior to USC, I was an assistant professor at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Prior to Columbia University, I was a research scientist at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health and the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California San Francisco. Upon completion of my Ph.D., I was a postdoctoral research fellow in population science at the UT Austin Population Research Center. During my Ph.D., I was an affiliate of the California Center for Population Research, and I worked with several different entities including faculty in public health and sociology at UCLA, faculty at the American University of Beirut, UCLA/RAND Prevention Research Center, International Organization for Migration, and the World Health Organization.