Before beginning my PhD, I was a Fulbright Garcia-Robles fellow at Ashoka Mexico. I fell in love with Mexico City and became invested in its problems, especially its water crisis. I've always had a love of learning, and even as I left Mexico I continued to question the social problems urban residents faced. 

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I then began working as a research assistant at the InterAmericanDevelopment Bank's Research Department, where I was introduced to and excited to begin acquiring skills in I began to acquire skills in data analysis and GIS. I decided to go to graduate school to further develop these skills and to study the questions that motivate me, namely: why don't we see more improvements to the quality of basic urban services?

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As a graduate student, I try and am intentional about seeking out diverse perspectives. One of the most rewarding parts of graduate school has been my participation in the NESTSMX project. Through the project, I've had the chance to do ethnographic interviews in households and to learn from anthropologists, public health researchers, and engineers. 

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While I had plans to conduct extensive fieldwork in 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 challenged those plans.  I spent 2020 conducting remote interviews, developing a citizen survey, and diving into Twitter data. I'm looking forward to resuming fieldwork in the future!