I am a Research Fellow at the New Zealand Work Research Institute at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). I earned a Ph.D. Economics from the University of New Mexico with major fields in econometrics and labor economics in 2018. My primary research focuses on the intersection of labor economics and the economics of education. Specifically, I am interested in transitions from higher education to the labor market. In this space, I study whether delayed college graduation serves as a productivity signal to prospective employers, the intended and unintended effects of broad-based state merit aid, and strategies to narrow the income gap in college graduation. I also study how adult literacy and numeracy skill endowments affect the speed of wage convergence between native- and foreign-born workers in 36 OECD host countries. I teach Economic Policy Analysis at AUT.