About Me

I grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, just down a T ride away from Fenway Park. In my twenties I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where I worked in youth organizations and played music (electric bass). My experiences as a youth worker in San Francisco’s Mission District inspired my curiosity about learning and critique of systemic injustice. I remember working in a community setting where young people thrived as leaders, problem-solvers, peer mentors, and videographers, but some of these same youth struggled in formal K12 classrooms or were impeded by structural barriers to 4 year college. I was moved to study theories of how people learn and exercise agency in rich social, cultural, and political contexts. I was lucky to get support for my dissertation research that looked at teaching and learning in multiracial community organizations from mentors at Stanford University (specifically Na'ilah Nasir and Milbrey McLaughlin).

 

I'm now a Professor of Learning Sciences and Human Development in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. I work collaboratively with educators, community organizers, and students to design and study learning environments that support youth development, activism, and civic participation. My book, Youth Activism in an Era of Education Inequality, received the social policy award for best authored book from the Society of Research on Adolescence. I also serve as Editor for the Information Age Press Series on Adolescence and Education, with volumes that have focused on civic participation in the digital age, youth worker professional development, and, most recently, Black Girl Civics.  

 

I'm grateful to be part of several teams doing research in partnership with schools and community organizations where young people from marginalized and minoritized communities are working with caring adults to develop their critique, agency, and political power. As co-PI of the Research Hub for Youth Organizing, I work with graduate students to co-design educational tools and research studies with youth organizers; the aim of our work is to build capacity for young people and their organizations to influence policy and public narratives focused on human rights, racial justice, and democracy. With the Critical Civic Inquiry Research Group I co-develop research-practice partnerships with schools working to foster youth sociopolitical learning, YPAR and transformative student voice to make their schools more just and race-conscious.

 

Lastly, I've just recently embarked on new work focused on healing justice in youth organizations as part of the Renee Crown Institute Wellness at CU Boulder and a study of current innovations and problems of practice related to equity in the Out of School Time field.