Her areas of research include urban sociology, social stratification, sociology of education, quantitative methods, and social policy. Her current research focuses on the causes and consequences of inequalities in neighborhood and school contexts. Projects in progress include documenting trends, causes, and consequences of school segregation by income; the consequences of changes in assisted housing policy for neighborhood well-being; the causes of socioeconomic changes in majority-Hispanic neighborhoods; and the consequences of neighborhood inequality for educational attainment into young adulthood. She is a faculty affiliate of the Spatial Sciences Institute and the Population Research Center. Prior to joining the faculty at USC, Ann completed her PhD in Sociology & Social Policy at Harvard University and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Stanford University.