Research Interests
My main interests are in environmental sociology and research methods. In my master’s thesis, I explored the influence of political elite cueing on support for environmental spending through a survey experiment. Key findings show that the political identity of supporters of environmental legislation significantly impacts support among Republicans. Further exploration of this topic shows that partisan polarization on environmental issues may be a highly gendered issue.
Another research project involves exploring large environmental organizations in the United States using IRS form 990 data. This publication in the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly journal explores environmental nonprofit organizations that have embraced a focus on either climate change or social justice issues. Among other things, the findings revealed key differences in organizational characteristics and their likelihood of adopting a focus on climate or justice.
More recently, my dissertation research involves a mixed-methods approach to understanding climate change organizations that do mitigation or adaptation. Specifically, I am interested in understanding the success of climate organizations using (1) a survey of organizations to understand their characteristics, (2) a survey of Americans to understand their support for climate organizations that do either adaptation or mitigation or both, and (3) a survey experiment measuring individual support to understand better the mechanisms that influence support.
Explore my Interactive CV to get a better look at the things that I have been working on.

Teaching Interests
Beyond research, I also have a passion of teaching. I am motivated by the desire to inspire my students to want to learn more about sociology. I enjoy seeing my student’s eyes light up when they learn about a new concept. I am always looking for ways to become a more effective teacher. For example, I have begun exploring the creation of Youtube videos to try to reach a broader audience.
In addition to teaching undergraduates, spreading knowledge and wisdom to the public drives me. Evidence of this may be found in my desire to share my own learning guides and academic resources. I also enjoy lecturing on various topics, such as survey design to graduate students in the School of Business. See the Interactive CV page for a complete list of guest lectures.
