I was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and in 2007 I completed my BA (honours) in political science at St. Thomas University. In 2009, I defended my MA in political science at the University of Calgary. My MA thesis examined the effect of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms on legislation concerning commercial surrogacy.

In 2014, I completed my PhD at the University of Calgary. My dissertation explored the history of provincial and federal regulation of assisted reproduction policy in Canada, focusing specifically on the role of courts and self-regulatory medical organizations in creating and sustaining public policy. From 2014-2015, I was a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University. My research at Dalhousie concerned embryonic research and the governance of fertility clinics in Canada.

Since July 2015, I have been a faculty member in the Department of Political Science at the University of Guelph. My current research project, for which I hold a SSHRC Insight Grant, is an empirical analysis of the way in which the Supreme Court of Canada permits governments to limit rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.