I am an Assistant Professor in Sociology at Columbia University and a member of the Data Science Institute. I use causal inference and machine learning methods to study urban inequality, violence, and racial disparities in policing. My work has been published in the American Sociological Review, Child Development, Demography, the Journal of Urban Economics, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Social Science & Medicine among other peer-reviewed journals. Findings from my research have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Bloomberg. I received my PhD in Sociology from New York University in 2019, a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2014, and a BS in Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in 2004. Before graduate school, I was a firefighter at Barcelona Fire Department from 2007 to 2011. In my free time, I enjoy running, cycling, and hiking.
• 01-2024: I am grateful for the opportunity to join the Russsell Sage Visiting Scholar Class of 2024–2025.
• 06-2023: The study “Understanding Why EmpaTeach Did Not Reduce Teachers’ Use of Violence in Nyarugusu Refugee Camp: A Quantitative Process Evaluation of a School-Based Violence Prevention Intervention,” co-authored with researchers from the Behavioral Insights Team, the International Rescue Committee, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has been published in PLoS Global Public Health.
• 03-2022: The research that Sam Donahue and I are doing on the effects of diversity and peer influences in policing has been awarded a Trustee Grant from the Russell Sage Foundation.
• 01-2022: The article “Declining Violence and Improving Birth Outcomes in the US: Evidence from Birth Certificate Data,” co-authored with Nicholas Mark, has been published in Social Science and Medicine.
• 10-2021: The study “The EmpaTeach Intervention for Reducing Physical Violence from Teachers to Students in Nyarugusu Refugee Camp: A Cluster-Randomised Controlled Trial,” co-authored with researchers from the Behavioral Insights Team, the International Rescue Committee, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has been published in PLoS Medicine.
• 02-2021: My article “Using Machine Learning to Estimate the Effect of Racial Segregation on COVID-19 Mortality in the United States” has been published at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
• 07-2020: I started as an Assistant Professor in Sociology at Columbia University.
• 01-2020: My article “Crime and Inequality in Academic Achievement Across School Districts in the United States” has been published in Demography.
• 07-2019: I started as a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University’s Data Science Institute.