I am an Associate Professor at University of Alberta. My research explores how people navigate the challenges and opportunities of their work. I study work, occupations, and professions, and I am an inductive, qualitative field researcher. My projects begin with a puzzling phenomenon in the world. I then ask what is going on, and what it can teach us about organizations. A thread running through my research is how people carry out and make sense of their work when their occupation’s ideals meet the demands of managers, clients, new technologies, and the public. I have studied airport screeners at the Transportation Security Administration, university career advisers in business schools, teachers at a Finnish school asked to digitize their teaching, Instacart gig-workers suddenly hailed as heroes during the pandemic, police officers, and street dancers.
My scholarly research is published in Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Academy of Management Journal, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and the Academy of Management Annals. I also have written work appearing in the Harvard Business Review, Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings, Work and Occupations, and the Industrial and Labor Relations Review. This research has received distinctions such as the ASQ Award for Scholarly Contribution, the Academy of Management’s Saroj Parasuraman Award for outstanding publication on gender and diversity, the Best Article Award from the Academy of Management Annals, and the Academy of Management’s ONE-SIM Outreach Award. My research has been mentioned in media outlets such as The Atlantic, Axios, and Scientific American, as well as in popular books like Bob Sutton’s The Asshole Survival Guide and podcasts like Adam Grant’s WorkLife.
I have received “Teaching Star” distinctions from the Dean and teaching committee at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management for outstanding teaching, based on having received the most favorable evaluations from students, while also challenging them intellectually. I was also named one of the Poets&Quants Top 50 Undergraduate Professors Of 2020.
In terms of professional service, I serve on the Editorial Review Boards for Administrative Science Quarterly and Organization Science.
I was previously an Assistant Professor at Boston College. I received my Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Harvard Business School and Harvard University, where I received the Wyss Award for excellence in research. I also earned a master’s degree in Sociology from Harvard University. Before entering graduate school, I worked in the management and strategy consulting industry at the firm Innosight. I earned my bachelor’s degree in social anthropology and a secondary field in psychology from Harvard College, graduating summa cum laude and as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society since my junior year of college. During college, I conducted ethnographic research on the cultural values of street dancers in New England and Miami, and the undergraduate thesis I wrote on this topic was awarded a Thomas T. Hoopes Prize for outstanding thesis research.