I aim to be self aware, empathetic, and compassionate in all things I do. I don't hold a great deal of faith in personality assessments but Gallup's StrengthsFinder hit the nail on the head for me. My top themes were individualization, analytical, relator, empathy, and deliberative. If you speak to people I'm close with, and from the small sample of friends and family I asked, the word passionate is often used to describe me. I always strive to include all, recognize kindness and contribution, and approach each scenario knowing I have zero idea what's happening in the minds of people around me. I've had my fair share of "bad bosses" - we all have - and the root cause of bad bosses tends to lie in poor communication, misaligned missions, and lack of collaboration. As a result, I always aim to lead with effective communication, clear goals and expectations, and without a personal agenda. I'm a true believer in Senator Paul Wellstone's quote, "We all do better, when we all do better."

I am a fighter for those who can't speak for themselves. From animals to patients, I'm driven to help others. When I was 14 years old, my father was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He passed away at 60. I was 22. People often apologize for the loss, which is appreciated, but ultimately, I know I wouldn't be the person I am today without this experience. Heck, I might not be in the career I'm in if it wasn't for this experience. Seeing how my father and others were treated in the nursing home left me astonished and led me to fight for the unheard voices of the world. If you ever need an advocate, I'm likely your girl. In my friendships and relationships, I encourage effective, nonjudgmental communication because human connection matters.

I tend to put my heart on, what feels like, a lopsided shelf during an earthquake more often than not. I set high expectations for myself, always let those I love know what they mean to me, and adore animals. My nephew is the love of my life - that kid has opened a piece of my heart that I never knew existed. I'm very close with my immediate family and have been with my partner for over a decade. We own a house in Alexandria, VA and have been in the area for 8+ years. 

I truly believe data should drive decisions. 

I should correct myself, I truly believe accurately described and analyzed data should drive decisions. Misinterpreting a statistic seems to happen more often than not, and it's always my goal to take the complex analyses and data and turn them into meaningful and understandable output. I am extremely detail-oriented, organized, adaptable, and eager to continue developing as a professional. 

Early in my career, my work and studies focused on Alzheimer's and other dementias, quality of care within long-term care facilities, and problems commonly faced by aging populations. It was in grad school where I had the most qualitative work experience - one on the racial and ethnic differences in the quality of care in Medicaid-funded long-term care facilities and one on the cultural understanding of mental and behavioral health, specifically related to suicide among Laotian Americans in Minnesota. From there, my work transitioned to more quantitative work that focused on Medicare policies, then onto the role of Medicaid and the extensive list of barriers to accessing care among the insured and uninsured. I have worked with both survey and claims data, and have experience with web scraping.

In the last three years I’ve pioneered the research agenda for a new think tank called the Research and Action Institute with the Association of American Medical Colleges. In my roles on this team, I served as the primary researcher, stayed attuned with health care and policy discussions, and wrote and disseminated research findings. In this job, I was able to gain a strong understanding of health care from the perspectives of health systems, hospitals, and providers in this role that I wasn’t previously privy to, which is, in part, why I am searching for a role in the health care research field that focuses on all aspects of health care today.

Following graduate school where I received a master’s in public health and a master’s in public policy, I worked at KFF for nearly five years in the Program for Medicare Policy, the Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured, and the State Health Facts team. Much like my work at AAMC, my expertise in data and programming granted me the great opportunity to work across the organization and collaborate with all teams. It was in my time with KFF where I further developed time management skills given numerous overlapping research projects, produced reports for technical and non-technical audiences, and developed junior staff to expand organizational capabilities and capacity.

Through KFF and AAMC, I garnered a great understanding of transforming complex data and information into tangible deliverables, managing research portfolios, and serving as a subject matter expert on all things data. I am excited for the opportunity to contribute to the bodies of research and serve as an analytic expert on initiatives and strategies in my next role. 

I am proud to say some of my work has been referenced in large news outlets like The Washington Post, Politico, Axios, NPR, and KFF Health News, and by federal, state, and local policymakers. In addition, my work has been cited in multiple White House Briefings and even on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.