Building a psychology of possibility

I am an Associate Professor of Child and Adolescent Development at California State University, Sacramento. My work sits at the intersection of sociocultural psychology and human development — exploring how people cultivate agency, pursue well-being, and build meaningful lives within the institutional structures that organize contemporary society.

My interest in these questions originates in my own history as a child immigrant from Poland to Canada, and later as a Polish Canadian immigrant to the United States. Immigration is by definition a precarious undertaking — it means leaving a familiar home for an uncertain new world. But it is also a chance to face challenges, shape a different future, and build something meaningful. My family's experience of arriving with very little, not knowing the language, and persistently building a fulfilling life shaped how I think about agency and well-being — not as abstractions, but as lived, hard-won capacities.

My foundational research with immigrant communities — particularly undocumented immigrants in Canada and the United States — has shaped how I think about agency, resilience, and well-being across all contexts. That work revealed how people develop their agency to navigate recurring barriers and threats — a process I describe as the "Undocumented Stress Cycle" — and how supportive environments can dramatically expand individuals' sense of what is possible in their lives.

I now carry those insights into broader questions about agency and well-being: how do people develop resilience, hope, and self-understanding across different settings — universities, community-based programs, emerging AI-enabled learning platforms? Drawing on qualitative and sociocultural approaches, I am interested in how thoughtfully designed environments can expand the possibilities for human flourishing.