Biography

I am an Assistant Professor at the UMass Amherst School of Public Policy. As a nonprofit scholar, I employ quantitative, qualitative, and computational methods to investigate how nonprofits, foundations, and communities advance social and policy change through philanthropy, leadership, and social media advocacy. Rather than taking for granted that all nonprofits are created equal, my research also probes the inequality within the nonprofit and philanthropic sector across place and time in the US context. Collectively, my work advances theoretical development and fosters a critical understanding of how inequality manifests in the nonprofit sector, alongside endeavors to democratize power and promote distributive justice. Check out my ongoing and published work on my project page here or on ResearchGate.

I have published in leading nonprofit and public management journals, including Public Management Review, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Voluntas, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, and Academy of Management Proceedings. My research has received the Editors’ Prize for Best Scholarly Paper in Nonprofit Management and Leadership, the ARNOVA Best Conference Paper Award, the Emerging Scholar Award, and the RGK-ARNOVA President’s Research Award. My research has been funded externally by the RGK Foundation, the Institute for Humane Studies, the Generosity Commission, the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), and the University of Pennsylvania.

I served as the Managing Editor of NVSQ (2015-2020) and currently serve on the leadership teams for the Donor Advised Fund Common Interest Group, the Data and Analytics Section (DAS), Theory, Issues, Boundaries Section (TIBS), Development Committee and consultative working groups of ARNOVA. I am a nonprofit scholar, an aspiring ceramicist, a new mom, and a Hongkonger.