The Scholarship Behind
the Practice
I earned my Master of Science in Family, Youth, and Community Sciences from the University of Florida while working full-time as a nanny. The research I produced there is not separate from my work with families. It is the foundation of it. Below is a selection of that work, available to read in full.
Original research. Real questions. Work written for families as much as for academics.
The Childcare
Handbook
My graduate capstone brought together everything I had learned across two decades of practice and two years of intensive research. The result is a practical guide written for real parents making real decisions about childcare.
The scientific literature on child development is vast, rigorous, and largely inaccessible to the people it is meant to serve. This handbook translates that research into plain language, giving families the tools to evaluate their options clearly and make confident decisions with the resources they have.
Available now as an instant PDF download, 78 pages, written from the intersection of lived experience and graduate-level scholarship.
Covers nanny, daycare, and au pair options in depth. Grounded in peer-reviewed research and written by someone who has worked inside families for over two decades. A road map for navigating one of the most important decisions a parent will make.
Get the Handbook on EtsyGraduate Work in
Family and Youth Science
The papers below were written during my graduate program at the University of Florida. Each addresses a question I cared about deeply, informed by both the research and by years of working inside the families these questions affect most. All are available to read in full.
Focusing on What Works: Making the Most of a Family’s Available Childcare
With childcare costs unsustainably high and availability too low to meet demand, many families find themselves making do rather than thriving. This paper examines what the evidence actually shows about what matters most for children’s development across childcare types, giving families a framework for maximizing outcomes with the options they have.
Prioritizing Stressors: Using Family Stress Theory to Allocate Scarce Crisis Nursery Resources
An application of the Double ABC-X model of Family Stress Theory to the practical challenge facing crisis nurseries: how to fairly and effectively allocate limited services to families most in need. Proposes a scoring framework that intersects harm minimization and wellbeing maximization for families facing crisis.
Healthy Parents and Healthy Kids: Parental Self-Care and Children’s Healthy Attachment
Drawing on a meta-analysis of 42 studies, this paper examines the relationship between parental wellbeing and healthy attachment in children. Translates the research into practical, non-judgmental guidance for parents navigating the tension between their own needs and their children’s development.
Healthy Expectations for In-Home Childcare
A research-grounded examination of what families should realistically expect when hiring a nanny, and what fair employment actually looks like. Addresses widespread misconceptions about nanny working conditions, compensation, and the legal responsibilities of in-home employers.
School Support for Children Grieving the Loss of a Sibling
An examination of the role schools can play in supporting children through sibling bereavement, a form of loss often overlooked in family-focused grief literature. Written as accessible guidance for parents navigating how to advocate for a grieving child within an institutional setting.
Teen Pregnancy: Using Risk and Protective Factors in Prevention Efforts
This paper argues that the politicization of teen pregnancy in American culture has obscured genuine public health thinking, placing blame on young women rather than addressing the structural and social forces that drive the issue. Drawing on risk and protective factor frameworks, it outlines what evidence-based prevention actually requires.
From Research
to Practice
Research that stays on the page has limited value. These documents represent the translation of academic work into real program proposals, applying the frameworks and evidence from my graduate research to concrete community needs.
Crisis Nursery Services in DC: Program Plan and Evaluation Guidelines
A full program design proposal for a Crisis Nursery serving Washington DC, developed from my graduate research into family stress theory and acute childcare need. Includes service model, target population, evaluation framework, and implementation guidelines — a direct translation of academic research into actionable community infrastructure.
Do Good. Period. Fundraising Plan
A comprehensive fundraising strategy developed for a nonprofit organization, demonstrating applied skills in nonprofit development, donor engagement, and program sustainability. Evidence that research and advocacy work requires not only good ideas but the organizational capacity to fund and sustain them.
Writing Beyond
the Academic
A Life in Words
Writing has been a constant in my life both in school and out. I write young adult and romance novels for the pleasure of it, and continue creative writing as an ongoing personal practice.
I was published in Cypress Dome, the University of Central Florida’s literary magazine, for both fiction and nonfiction, and was a frequent participant in Gainesville’s famous Poetry Jam during my time as an undergraduate at UF.
Where My Research
Lives
Childcare Quality and Access
What does the research actually say about what makes childcare good? How do families navigate a system that is expensive, unequal, and difficult to understand?
Positive Youth Development
Frameworks for understanding young people through the lens of their strengths and potential rather than their deficits and risks.
LGBTQ+ Youth and Families
The particular joys and challenges of LGBTQ+ young people and the families and institutions that shape their outcomes.
Family Stress and Resilience
How families navigate crisis, allocate scarce resources, and build the resilience to weather what life brings.
Adolescent Literature
The cultural work done by the stories we give young people, and what YA fiction teaches adolescents about power, identity, and what they are allowed to become.
Child and Family Policy
How policy shapes the lived experience of children and families, and what evidence-based approaches to prevention and intervention actually look like in practice.