Meta Research

I grew up in the Bay Area and went to Stanford where I first started engaging in the research process working on projects like designing satellite bus systems for NASA, developing a process to help make ventures in third world countries more sustainable, and examining the developmental changes in the fusiform face area of brain that are associated with recognition of in- vs. out-group race faces. After whetting my research appetite, I went on to get my PhD in social psychology at the University of Washington. It was here that I had the chance to really hone the scientific thought process, and I learned and applied different quantitative methods to approach questions around social identification, personality and intergroup biases. During and after graduate school, I had the opportunity to work as a researcher at Google on the Search team, TiVo, Inc., and Wetpaint! where I used both qualitative and quantitative methods to help these companies better understand the people that used their products and optimize their current and future user experiences.