I'm an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Guttman Community College in New York City. My research examines strategies implemented inside correctional facilities to help incarcerated people return home to their communities.

I've been practicing vipassana meditation since 2008. In 2016, I graduated from the joint Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders Training Program. I co-chair New York Insight’s Diversity, Equity and Liberation committee. I'm also on the boards of Insight Meditation Society and the Association of Black Anthropologists.

When I’m not teaching, I can be found knitting, cooking, baking, or inhabiting my alter ego BackAlley Dred while coaching jr. roller derby. My derby name is play on words, but it mostly honours the courage, grit and tenacity of Dred Scott, an enslaved African American who sued for his freedom.