She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 2008, where she worked with Linda Waite, Edward Laumann, and Kathleen Cagney.
[6][7] She was the last research assistant to the sociologist, Fred Strodtbeck, who studied group dynamics, value orientation, and gangs - and is the founder of the science of jury selection.
This work has led to thousands of survey-related studies of social networks in different languages, and policy applications in urban senior centers.
These have led to studies of the prevalence and impact of inaccuracies in individuals' criminal records, how neighborhood context affects health, as well as several studies that improve upon previous survey research by using smartphones to track how real-time experiences with the social environment affect people.
[15] In 2018, she won the Appel Fellowship for Humanists and Social Scientists, which recognizes faculty achievements in teaching and research.