About Me

I am an Associate Professor of Political Science and a faculty affiliate of the Gender, Race, and Identity (GRI) program at the University of Nevada, Reno. I earned my Ph.D. in political science from Boston University in 2020 and started working at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) that same year.

My first book, The Art of Trafficking: How Politics Shape Narco-Strategies and Violence in Central America, uses comparative ethnography to examine the ways in which political contexts influence drug-traffickers’ operational strategies and trafficking-related violence in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. The Art of Trafficking was published in December 2025 with Oxford University Press.

My research has also been published in Comparative Political Studies, Geoforum, Political Geography, World Development, as well as other outlets, and I frequently contribute to NACLA. I am currently working on new or ongoing research projects related to violence against public figures, gender dynamics in illicit drug markets, the consequences of counternarcotics militarization in Indigenous and Afro-Descendent territories, and more!

In 2022, I won a Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Distinguished Scholar Award for the Violence Against Public Figures (VAPF) project, which is compiling a comprehensive dataset of all politicians, members of the media, judicial officials, activists and community leaders who have been assassinated in Central America since 2008.

At UNR, I teach courses on the drug war (PSC403Q), political violence (PSC407Q), the politics of Latin America (PSC407E), qualitative research methods (PSC784), border politics (PSC408F), comparative politics (PSC211), and research design (PSC781). I also frequently serve as a mentor for UNR students through the Nevada Undergraduate Research Award and Pack Research Experience Program (PREP).

When I am not researching or teaching, I love skiing and hiking in the mountains around Reno, painting, and spending time in the Central American communities that have become my second home.