I am a sociologist working in health care. I study religion, gender, sexuality, and rural health.

My book, The Holy Vote: White Evangelicals, Inequality, Anxiety, and Change, published with The University of California Press, uses ethnographic data to explain how a white evangelical megachurch in the Pacific Northwest is working to expand while younger adults are leaving religion behind. In order to grow, and appease younger generations, the church needs to approach things long understood as external threats to the organization: democrats, feminisms and gender equality, racial inclusivity, and homosexuality. I show how the church and its parishioners create space for responses to and engagement with this bundling of liberal projects—what I call the imagined secular— and approach these external threats in ways that, on the surface, appear to work toward their goals of increased welcoming and growth, while simultaneously allowing and encouraging inequalities to endure.

My other research focuses on youth suicide in the Mountain West. I am a Co-PI on the Social Worlds and Youth Wellbeing Study, with Drs. Anna Mueller and Seth Abrutyn.

You can find my research in Gender & Society, Social Problems, Signs, Sex Roles, the Journal of Adolescent Health, and Sexualities. I have won numerous awards for both my research and my teaching. Most recently, I was awarded the American Sociological Association Section on Sexualities’ Early Career Award and the American Sociological Association Section on Religion Distinguished Article Award. I have a PhD in Sociology from The University of Washington and hold a visiting scholar position at Indiana University.