I am currently working on my PhD in Economics at American University. Before starting, I worked as an opposition researcher on many different Democratic campaigns at the national, state, and local levels

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

American University, Washington, DC

PhD, Economics. August 2021 - Present Masters, Applied Economics. August 2021 - December 2023

Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA

BA, Quantitative Economics. August 2015 - December 2018

EXPERIENCE

Technical Assistant: American University Institute for Macroeconomic Policy Analysis, January 2024 - Present

  • Profiled, tested, and documented pre-existing code
  • Optimized parts of the codebase to dramatically increase speed

Economic Policy Analyst: 20/20 Vision, Summer 2023

  • Prepared briefs on issues related to consumer finance, industrial policy, financial regulation of nonbank financial firms, education finance, and the federal reserve
  • Engaged with experts and policy makers to fine tune messaging on issues related to consumer finance, industrial policy, financial regulation of nonbank financial firms, education finance, and the federal reserve
  • Assisted in publishing twice-weekly newsletter to tens of thousands of progressive policy influencers

Research Intern: House Majority PAC, March 2022 - December 2022

  • Fact-checked House Majority PAC materials, including polls and advertisements to ensure factual accuracy
  • Compiled and constructed research books on candidates for the House of Representatives across the country
  • Automated processes to speed up the research team's ability to collect information in an easily accessible format

Research Associate: American Bridge 21st Century, April 2019 - August 2021

  • Analyzed the impact of the Trump administration's policies and actions on areas and populations of strategic importance to winning back Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania in the 2020 campaign using quantitative and qualitative methods
  • Vetted participants in American Bridge 21st Century projects to find potentially compromising information, and verify claims made
  • Provided background and support to a year-long, $62 million program that targeted 1.5 million Trump supporters across 70 key counties identified using high-level analytics
  • Tracked The macro and microeconomic implications of the cyclical and structural changes brought about by the Trump administration's actions and policies
  • Fact-checked American Bridge 21st Century materials through processes like ad backup
  • Built and maintained databases with useful data categorizing the conflicts and consequences of actions taken and policies enacted by the Trump administration
  • Wrote narrative documents that resulted in earned media in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg

Research Intern: Forward Majority Action, January 2018 - November 2018

  • Conducted extensive opposition research into the backgrounds of top targets of Super PAC founded by Obama campaign alumni to flip state legislatures ahead of redistricting
  • Regularly monitored social media accounts and press mentions of top targets
  • Combed through committee hearings and legislative records that exposed a target's ties to a Southern Poverty Law Center designated hate group
  • Prepared regular press clips and media reports in seven battleground states to shape daily communications agenda
  • Helped draft nationally distributed press and donor memos
  • Assisted in internal office organization and work-flow, including managing public outreach email accounts

Research Intern, Priorities USA Action: Summer 2016

  • Conducted opposition research into the background of then-candidate Donald Trump for top-tier Democratic Super PAC, identifying print, video, and audio assets
  • Summarized research to enable leadership team to quickly package and distribute it to maximize impact in line with organizational strategy
  • Provided organizational support within the office as required

Apprentice, Naval Research Laboratory: Summer, 2014, 2015

  • Designed and Implemented an experiment to determine whether Benthic Microbial Fuel Cells (BMFCs) could be recharged
  • Analyzed data from experiment to optimize duty cycle of BMFCs according to two different measures of efficiency
  • Presented results, leading to publication of research in Environmental Science and Technology Letters 2017:4;374-79

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Research, LexisNexis, Statistical Data Analysis, Technical Writing, Leadership, C++, Julia, SQL, NetLogo, Git, GitHub

PUBLICATIONS

Electrochemistry

Yates, M.D., Ma, L., Sack, J., Golden, J.P., Strycharz-Glavern, S.M., Yates, S.R., and Tender, L.M. (2017). Microbian Electrochemical Energy Storage and Recovery in a Combined Electrophic and Electrogenic Biofilm. Environemntal Science & Technology Letters, 4(9):374-379

AWARDS

Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition

Dickinson College Dean's Scholar

International Institute of Forecasters, Student Award

ACTIVITIES

Dickinson College Economics Majors Committee, College Democrats (Treasurer; Chairman, Students for Hillary), Dickinson College Cross Country/Track (2015-2018)