Welcome! I am Associate Professor of Public Policy and Public Affairs  and PhD in Public Policy Program Director at the University of Massachusetts Boston‘ McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies.

The questions I am most passionate about are: Why do poverty and inequality concentrate in cities? What leads people to extreme and hostile living conditions found in slums? What kind of policies and interventions could improve living conditions in slums? I mainly study these questions in developing countries, through surveys, experiments, simulations, and large-scale datasets. Some of my recent work in this area is funded by the National Science Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank Group, and International Development Research Centre. If you hate to read about my research, come over for a coffee (or tea if you are my colonial cousin).

I regularly teach graduate level courses on Urban Politics and Policy, and Public Policy Theories, Statistics, and Research Methods.

My educational background is in Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning, Management, and Public Policy.

Before joining UMass Boston, I was a Post-doctoral Research Fellow and Instructor at George Mason University’s School of Policy, Government and International Affairs, and Krasnow Institute. Before moving to the United States, I worked as a researcher at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad on an action research project aimed to improve access to healthcare for poor communities in India.