My research examines how communication and intergroup processes shape social perception, prejudice, trust, empathy, and social relationships between members of different social groups. Drawing on social identity, intergroup communication, and communication accommodation theories, I study these processes primarily in police-community and other criminal legal contexts.
After 25 years in law enforcement, including service in command positions, I left policing with a question that continues to shape my research: Why are so many communication challenges in policing not informed by decades of communication scholarship?
I am a Ph.D. candidate in Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where I study police–community relationships through the lenses of intergroup communication and Communication Accommodation Theory. My research focuses on how communication shapes trust, legitimacy, and relationships between police and the public, with an emphasis on developing, implementing, and evaluating evidence-based approaches that can be translated into practice.
I am an NIJ LEADS Scholar and Executive Fellow with the National Policing Institute. I am also a co-developer of VOICES, an evidence-informed intergroup dialogue model designed to foster constructive engagement between police and community members. My broader research interests include police communication, intergroup dialogue, communication accommodation, police legitimacy and trust, mixed methods, implementation science, and evidence-based policing.
B.A. 2013, Old Dominion University, English
M.A. 2016, Arizona State University, Criminal Jutsice