I would like to extend heartfelt thanks to the many people who have played such a large role in my graduate school experience. First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Brooke, for accepting me as a student, for allowing me to work and learn under her, and for guiding me as I explored my seemingly different, but eventually overlapping, research interests. I would also like to thank my dissertation committee. With each meeting along the dissertation process, my heart would race as I faced the group of powerhouse researchers that is my committee. However, by the end of each meeting, my anxieties were always eased by their guidance, constructive feedback, encouragement, and kindness.
I am also thankful for my colleagues at the National Center for Children and Families. The students and the post-doctoral research scientists at NCCF have answered countless questions for me, edited many of my drafts, shared study materials with me, and have offered me much moral support over the years. Specifically, Rachel Razza, my post-doctoral advisor, and Liza Malone, my student advisor, took me under their smart, organized, hard working, analytic, and protective wings as I muddled through the first few years of my doctoral program. And then there’s Anna Johnson: my office mate, my motivator, my therapist, my academic example, and my grad school “spouse”. I am so thankful for everything she has done for me along the way and can only hope I will somehow find a way to repay her in the coming years.
I would also like to thank our dissertation work group which was formed during Jane Waldfogel’s class on Methods for Policy Analysis but has lasted for many semesters after. I would like to thank them for the draft reading, the presentation practicing, the hours of discussion about our research ideas and our future careers, and for the friendships that I know will last for years to come.
The Rita Gold Early Childhood Center, where my son has spent many hours, also holds a special place in my heart. Thank you to all of his incredible teachers for providing a safe, happy, and enriching place for Liam to go, while his mother contemplated the ins and outs of maternal work!
During looming deadlines, conferences, and summer breaks from child care, my parents, my siblings, and my in-laws have again and again swooped in to the save the day and my sanity. Also, I am thankful for my parents who have set the example for what hard work is and have showed me that it is possible to have it all: family, education, and a career. I am also indebted to my mother who is the most amazing writer and editor I know. She has spent hours reading and editing for me and has an unmatched talent for simplifying my overcomplicated sentences.
Finally, I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my husband, Jason, my son, Liam, and our little bun-in-the-oven to be named later. It is Jason who willingly married a “career student” knowing that there would be years of living in the most expensive city on the planet, in a tiny apartment, on one income. Jason has never complained or questioned why a PhD takes so long. Instead he has been my head cheerleader. He is always ready to toast my successes with me or ready to scoop me back up with a pep talk and some “Jason humor” after my failures. And then Liam came along, who taught me more about children and families than I could have learned from a thousand text books. I strive to set the same example of hard, meaningful work for Liam that my parents have set for me. This extra motivation has driven me forward in many situations where I otherwise felt stalled. Lastly, I should mention our unborn child, who will have lived the ups and downs of dissertation writing, defending, and depositing for the majority of her gestation. May she come away unscathed. This dissertation belongs as much to my family as it does to me.
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