I was born in Middletown, CT, and raised across the Connecticut River in Portland, source of the world-famous brownstone.  For two years my family lived in Tanzania at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, where I attended the International School of Moshi.

I graduated from Washington and Lee University with a BA in Sociology and Anthropology.  In college, I studied abroad in Durban, South Africa, through the School for International Training and spent one summer administering vaccinations in Paraguay through Amigos de las Americas. I earned my Master's in Sociology from Indiana University (Bloomington), where I will also complete my Ph.D. in June 2008.