She completed her PhD at Ohio State University in Hispanic Linguistics in 2015. Her work examines language variation through both quantitative and qualitative sociolinguistic methods. Specifically, she is interested in how society, grammar, and lexical frequency condition the use of socially-stigmatized vs. 'standard' language features. Her most recent projects include a sociopragmatic approach to variation between the Brazilian Portuguese terms 'favelado' and 'morador de favela' (both mean 'slum dweller') and an analysis of the production and perception of Puerto Rican syllable-final liquids.