She received her BA in Political Science and Philosophy before starting her PhD in Political Science with Syracuse University. Her research focuses on gender and rebel governance, specifically focusing on all-women tactical brigades. In her research, she centers a feminist security studies approach to counterinsurgent policy. She studies social and conjugal orders and the post-conflict institutional legacies of rebel governance structures. She is a research assistant with Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs where she manages the Global Black Spots research program and specializes in Leadership Trait Analysis. She is a member of several bridging-the-gap research groups composed of academics and practitioners interested in tightening the relationship between scholarship and policy.