He held the Jeffrey L. and Sharon D. Hyde Early Career Professorship from 2012-2014. He completed his PhD at UCLA in 2007 and held post-doctoral positions at Princeton University and the University of Notre Dame. His research on foreign aid and autocratic politics has been published or is forthcoming in the American Journal of Political Science, the Annual Review of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, and the Journal of Politics. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Minerva Research Initiative.