Brief Bio

Through social work, I’ve worked in different parts of the country with many individuals and families who have experienced issues of homelessness and housing instability. After noticing the extent to which systemic issues of inequality and injustice consistently underpin most of the challenges I witnessed and experienced in direct practice, I decided to get my PhD in Social Work at UT Knoxville and engage in further research of these critical issues.

Education

• BSW, Lipscomb University, 2011
• MSW, University of Memphis, 2014
• City of Memphis Division of Housing and Community Development Fellow, 2012-14
• PhD, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2022

Research Interests

• housing affordability
• fair housing policy and practices
• housing discrimination and related inequities and injustices
• housing stability and homelessness
• guaranteed income and universal basic income
• empathy
• labor rights and workforce development
• the effects of underpaying and undervaluing social workers and the social work profession