Amber is an assistant professor of Politics at the University of Virginia. Her research examines public policy, representation, and race and ethnic politics in the United States.  

Specifically, Amber's research examines when policies about race make it to the political agenda and how do these policies impact existing racial inequalities.  Her book project, "Symbols Over Substance: Legislative Attention to Race," utilizes text analysis to track legislative attention to race across states and the federal government. Through this work she aims to document how variations in attention, responsiveness, and policy outputs impact the lived realities of people of color. 

Amber is a recipient of the MIT-SHASS Predoctoral Fellowship (2023-2024). She has been recognized as an American Political Science Association Minority Fellow, Urban Leaders Fellow, Fontaine Fellow,  and Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. Her research has benefitted from the generous support of the Center for the Study of Race and Immigration,  Penn Institute for Urban Research, the University of Pennsylvania Department of Political Science, and the American Political Science Association. 

She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D.) and Barnard College of Columbia University where she majored in political science and sociology (BA).