Photo credit: Benn Craig, Belfer Center

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of San Diego.

My research seeks to understand the domestic drivers of states' international behavior, with a focus on China and the Asia-Pacific. My current book project develops and tests a theory that explains when and why local leaders in China participate in foreign economic coercion. My research has been supported by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the Confucius China Studies Program, and the Center for International Studies at MIT.

I received my PhD from the Department of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I was a member of the Security Studies Program. I was a pre-doctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. 
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I am from the Big Island of Hawaii and received a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Journalism from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. I also received a Master's degree in International Relations from Yale University and was previously a Peace Corps Volunteer in Fuling, China.


Photo above: Xi'an, Shaanxi

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