I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in Human Development and Family Science within the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences and the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience. In collaboration with Dr. John Souza, I am building the University's first Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) program. I also currently serve as the Past-Chair of the Family Therapy section of the National Council of Family Relations (NCFR). Before coming to UH-Manoa, I was an Associate Professor and MFT Program Director at Oklahoma State University. I received my M.S. and Ph.D. in MFT at Kansas State University and served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Family Institute at Northwestern University. I am a licensed marital and family therapist (LMFT) and both a Clinical Fellow and Approved Supervisor of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT). I was also awarded the AAMFT Leadership Certificate in 2024.

My scholarship focuses on improving marital resilience and preventing unnecessary divorce by closely examining services provided to couples such as relationship education and couple therapy, and by identifying factors that promote marital quality and stability. 

I also seek to improve overall training and practice in Marriage and Family Therapy by exploring (1) integrative systemic therapy, (2) research- and feedback-informed deliberate practice, (3) relational ethics in therapy, (4) multicultural and philosophical dimensions of family therapy, and (5) the person of the therapist.