My research examines how structural racism and historical trauma permeate family processes and shape mental health across three generations of Black families, with particular attention to how depression is experienced and expressed. My dissertation uses a three-paper, multimethod design: a scoping review, a longitudinal quantitative analysis, and a qualitative multiple-case study. The design draws on Bowen's concept of multigenerational transmission, which treats grandparent, parent, and child as a single system rather than isolated dyads, though I examine differentiation without presuming linear decline. Syndemic theory situates depression within the structural inequities Black families navigate. Grounded in Afrocentric and community-engaged perspectives, my work centers Black families as producers of knowledge. My broader agenda aspires to develop culturally grounded, family-centered interventions and inform policy supporting Black family wellbeing. My teaching spans social work practice, human development, and international social justice. My philosophy draws on Rogers' unconditional positive regard, Nash's agapic energy, Freire's co-intentionality, and radical acceptance from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. I model genuine interest in students' perspectives without imposing my own and frame the classroom as shared inquiry rather than transmission of fixed knowledge. Agapic energy teaches students to locate injustice in systems rather than individuals, sustaining critique alongside coalition. Radical acceptance builds the flexibility students need to pursue social change while protecting their wellbeing. In practice, this means bringing community voices into the classroom alongside peer-reviewed scholarship, so students examine what counts as evidence and why

My research interests center on maternal and perinatal mental health, family systems, health policy, and the ways social and community contexts shape outcomes for parents and children. I am particularly interested in how we can support family systems to influence maternal and infant well-being, as well as how research can be translated into more responsive services and systems of care. My work reflects a broader interest in connecting individual and family experiences with the organizations, communities, and policies that shape access to support.

My teaching approach is grounded in applied learning and in helping students connect research, policy, and practice. I encourage students to think critically about how evidence is produced, how it is used within systems, and how research and evaluation can inform practice and organizational decision-making. I also emphasize the importance of understanding clients and communities within the broader systems that influence their experiences. My background in clinical practice, program leadership, research, and community-based work informs my teaching and allows me to bring practical examples into the classroom while supporting students in building strong critical thinking and professional judgment.

I am an Afro-Puerto Rican scholar-activist from the colony of Puerto Rico (PR). My initial academic training is in applied linguistics which has equipped me to passionately teach both Spanish and English using alternative education methods and critical pedagogies over the last decade. As a social policy and design innovation instructor, I have developed a Freirian praxis where I co-develop the curriculum with my students and teach them practical organizing skills for advocacy rooted in social movement pedagogies.

Building from my linguistic background and my organizing experiences in labor and education, I am a Ph.D. candidate in social work researching the role of language in gentrification and labor precarity as two social determinants of health. I ethnographically analyze the use of English by restaurant waitstaff working in census tracts undergoing gentrification and with a high English-only population to understand how it is impacting their precarious working conditions. I use a raciolinguistics (language racialization) (Flores & Rosa, 2015) and critical discourse analysis to analyze how coloniality (Quijano, 1999) shapes the co-naturalization of English with whiteness to meet tourism demands while further alienating workers from their labor and culture.

In my commitment to public scholarship, I am currently participating in anti-displacement grassroots efforts and organizing efforts to improve the working conditions of waitstaff workers with my research. In my free time, I perform Puerto Rican plena with friends including one of my teachers who performed in Bad Bunny’s album “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” (DtMF). Biography