I am an empirical political scientist studying questions of violent conflict, democratic participation and peacebuilding. I am a Research Scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute of International Studies and incoming research lead of the upcoming CDDRL Democracy Action Lab. I earned my PhD in Political Science from New York University’s Department of Politics.

My main focus has been on the consequences of political solutions to violence and the electoral participation of parties with rebel origins. I study how guarantees of power shape their political mobilization, building on scholarship on reservations and power-sharing. I also study strategies to promote former rebels’ democratic engagement and examine the consequences of their participation for democracy. I have conducted novel experiments, surveys, and interviews with ex-combatants, former commanders, civilian militants and peace agreement negotiators in Colombia. I also use within-country electoral observational data as well as original cross-national data on 120 rebel parties.  In my book project, I examine the dilemmas and consequences of negotiated political inclusion as a path for peace, centering on the case of the Colombian peace process. My work has been supported by the Folke Bernadotte Academy, the Institute for Humane Studies, the American Political Science Association Centennial Center, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (NYU-UR) and is published in the Journal of Politics.

I have deeply enjoyed teaching throughout my career and am currently a primary instructor for the Fisher Family CDDRL Honors Program at Stanford. While at NYU I taught courses on International Relations, Insurgency and Counterinsurgency, Comparative Politics, Political Economy of Development in Latin America and the Senior Honors Seminars. In 2021, I was honored to receive the Dean’s Outstanding Teaching Award. 

I also have experience conducting policy research for a variety of organizations, including for the United Nations University Center for Policy Research on ex-combatant reintegration into civilian life, the Inter-American Development Bank on the evolution of Venezuela’s energy infrastructure, US-based think tank on informing US foreign policy towards Latin America, and a Caracas-based organization on state-sponsored killings and police militarization. 

See my most recent CV here.