I’m the Jill McGovern and Steven Muller Assistant Professor of China Studies and International Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
I am a political economist whose research bridges Chinese governance, development studies, and international political economy. My work focuses on two main research agendas: the first investigates the political incentives and intergovernmental institutions that shape China’s subnational economic development; the second examines the global political consequences of China’s economic rise. I employ mixed methods, combining original datasets, fieldwork, case studies, and survey experiments to build and test theory.
Previously, I was an Economist at the World Bank and a China Public Policy Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. At SAIS, I was the U.S. Director of the Pacific Community Initiative from 2017-2022. I was a National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Public Intellectual Program (PIP) fellow for 2021-2023, a Woodrow Wilson China Fellow for 2021-2022, a visiting scholar at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in 2013, and a University of Chicago and Ford Foundation New Generation China Scholar for 2012-2013. I received my MA and PhD in China Studies from Johns Hopkins SAIS and my BA in Economics from Columbia University.