Meet Our Team

Carolyn holds a PhD from Penn State in Rural Sociology and Demography. Her dissertation research focused on the impacts of development projects on youth well-being, migration, and rural vitality drawing from multiple sources of data and using a range of analytical approaches.

Previously, after completing her MS degree, Carolyn held a research position at Cornell University as part of a team studying population health messaging in election campaign advertising, involving marginalized groups in research, and the effects of tobacco product labeling among socially disadvantaged groups in the U.S.

Carolyn is a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served from 2009-2013 in Peru. There, she created and implemented youth leadership programming, trained educators, and obtained multiple small grants to fund targeted development projects in one rural community. Her experiences abroad and in the U.S. give rise to her commitment to reducing social inequality and enhancing multiracial representation in our democracy through policy-relevant research. In her free time, she can be found snuggling with her kids or going on runs with her dog in upstate, NY.