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ABOUT ME
ABOUT ME
I am an environmental demographer and incoming NIH T32-funded postdoctoral fellow at the Carolina Population Center at UNC Chapel Hill.
My research examines intersections of migration, population health, environmental change, and rurality using interdisciplinary methods. My work spans geographic contexts and demographic inquires, from investigating women's migration and post-COVID well-being in Bangladesh to analyzing disaster impacts and rural health vulnerabilities in the United States. I am most interested in work that uses detailed data about people’s lives to understand and complicate large, complex demographic trends.
I contribute methodological expertise in research design, data integration, and advanced analysis to multidisciplinary, multi-university collaborations. I excel at synthesizing complex spatial-temporal data from diverse sources to address pressing social and environmental changes.
Originally from the mountains of rural Tennessee, I hold a BA in International Affairs from the George Washington University and an MS and PhD in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder. Before graduate school, I worked for international development and non-profit organizations in Myanmar, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C.
My research asks:
My research asks:
How can quantitative demographic methodologies illuminate complexity in the ways populations respond to socioenvironmental change?
For whom and under what conditions is migration an adaptive response to climate change?
RESEARCH
RESEARCH
Migration in Bangladesh
Migration in Bangladesh
Diversity and Change in Women's Migration in Bangladesh
Diversity and Change in Women's Migration in Bangladesh
How women migrate from Bangladesh is changing, and this study maps that shift. Using survival analysis and a novel typology of survey microdata, I find birth cohort increases in economic and educational migration, driven by mechanisms distinct from traditional family-based moves, revealing how migration flows mature and gendered networks drive change.
With Amanda Carrico, Katharine Donato, and Bishawjit Mallick (NSF-funded).
Carrico, A.R., Wilson Burns, H., Donato, K.M., Rahaman, H. and Best, K. (2026). Population and Development Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.70061
Extreme weather can influence who migrates in and from Bangladesh, but migrant networks complicate the story. Using retrospective household data, this study finds that social ties to migrants strongly predict first migration trips, particularly international ones, and tend to dampen rather than amplify weather-driven migration. Heat waves and storms have small, gender-divergent effects on domestic moves, while international migration responses to heat depend heavily on a community's existing migration networks.
Remittances and Well-being Resilience after COVID-19: Evidence from Bangladesh
Remittances and Well-being Resilience after COVID-19: Evidence from Bangladesh
Our work using longitudinal survey data from Bangladesh uncovers enduring declines in well-being two years after the acute stage of COVID-19. We find that remittance receipt nor return migration do not predict well-being, while agricultural and community-level livelihood disruptions during the major lockdown predicted lasting psychological distress and worse health—challenging assumptions about remittances' lasting protective role after livelihood crisis. I co-designed the research and led development of the digital survey instrument.
With Amanda Carrico and Katharine Donato (NSF-funded).
More information about the Bangladesh Environment and Migration Survey.
Climate Migration in Mexico
Climate Migration in Mexico
This study finds that drought-related shocks produce heterogeneous effects on international and internal migration rates, and are highly shaped by local social and economic contexts, gender, and life stage. I integrated sociodemographic data from Mexican census and government sources with climate data, leading cluster and difference-in-difference analyses.
With Fernando Riosmena, Johannes Uhl, and Stefan Leyk.
Extreme environmental events and rural elderly health
Extreme environmental events and rural elderly health
We examine how extreme environmental events like disasters and heat affect health and mortality among rural elderly Americans. By comparing rural and urban outcomes, the study builds evidence for protective and adaptive policy tailored to rural contexts. Under Special Sworn Status with the U.S. Census Bureau, I led integration and analysis of restricted National Health Interview Survey data with FEMA and SHELDUS disaster and climate data.
With Lori Hunter, Catherine Talbot, Dylan Connor, and Taylor Jaworski. (Center for Aging, Climate, & Health and NIA-funded.) More information on this project.
The Changing Demography of Disaster Impact in the US
The Changing Demography of Disaster Impact in the US
This project tracks how natural hazard burdens across the U.S. have shifted over the past decade, with attention to demographic disparities in exposure. My work examines mobility and exposure patterns across sociodemographic groups, linking migration to social vulnerability in disaster-affected areas amid rising disaster frequency. I co-developed code integrating the SHELDUS hazard loss database with ACS microdata, running analyses on supercomputing infrastructure to identify exposure patterns across population segments.
With Deborah Balk, Dylan Connor, Jenna Tipaldo, Lori Hunter, and Melanie Gall.
EXPERTISE
EXPERTISE
Advanced Quantitative Analysis
Advanced Quantitative Analysis
Microdata processing and analysis
Longitudinal and time-series analysis; survival analysis and event history modeling
Multilevel modeling
Complex survey design
Advanced in Stata (can code fluently in restricted offline settings)
Highly proficient in R
Research Design & Implementation
Research Design & Implementation
Survey development, field testing, enumerator training, and implementation
Mixed-methods research design
Cross-cultural data collection and collaboration
Advanced programming skills in KoboToolbox, XLSForm for digital survey instruments
Social-Environmental Data Integration
Social-Environmental Data Integration
Merging climate and disaster data with demographic data across scales
Spatial-temporal analysis of population-environment interactions
Harmonization of multi-source environmental and social datasets
Development of metrics for environmental exposure
Use of restricted data from NCHS and U.S. Census Bureau in a Federal Statistical Research Data Center
TEACHING
TEACHING
My teaching philosophy centers on developing critical thinking through interdisciplinary data literacy and quantitative reasoning.
I am interested in teaching courses focused on:
Research design in the social and environmental sciences
Population and environment
Statistics and data literacy as tools for understanding complex social-environmental phenomena
Migration dynamics and theory
Demographic concepts and methodology
CV & CONTACT
CV & CONTACT
HLWB_CV_Jun2026.pdfPage updated
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