Welcome!

I am a Social Scientist at the United States Department of State, and hold a PhD in Political Science from Columbia University. My research studies how informal institutions shape violence, security provision, and criminal conflict in Mexico and the United States. I study these questions using quantitative methods for causal identification with observational data, in-depth fieldwork, and archival methods. My research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy,  and the Institute for Latin American Studies at Columbia University. Prior to graduate school, I worked with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as a James C. Gaither Junior Fellow for Democracy and Rule of Law. 

My work is published in the  Annual Review of Political Science, PS: Political Science & Politics and World Politics, among other journals.  

Contact:

efb2130[at]columbia[dot]edu