He received his doctorate in Social Psychology and Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Denver in 2007. The focus of his research there was on shared interpersonal emotions and psychophysiology. Midway through is training, he was exposed to autism and became interested in how the basic psychological mechanisms he was studying are related to the autism phenotype. This interest led him to collaborate with JFK Partners, a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research, and Service (UCEDD), and a post-doctoral fellowship in autism assessment and public health/epidemiology at the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus. Following this postdoc, he joined the Faculty of the Department of Psychiatry, and expanded his research to include public health, community based participatory research and health disparities.