Thank You to Our 2017-18 Graduate Fellows!

Regional and working groups in the Scholars Strategy Network choose a graduate student fellow each year. Our sixth class includes twenty-five young women and men studying at universities from the North to the South and from the Atlantic to the mid-Pacific. Each is doing cutting-edge research that speaks to critical public challenges.

To learn more about each of the 2017-18 Fellows, click on a name to see the person's full profile with research interests and civic involvements. Click on a title to read the full brief. View the full list of Fellows here.

Thank you to each of our amazing graduate fellows for all of their hard work over the past year!

Benjamin Shestakofsky, Bay Area SSN Graduate Fellow

PhD Candidate in Sociology, University of California, Berkeley

SSN Basic Facts: “How Software Automation Changes Work – and Creates New Workforce Challenges – in the Digital Age”

Shestakofsky’s research examines how innovations in computing are affecting work and employment, organizations, and economic exchange. 

 

 

Ross Caputi, Boston SSN Graduate Fellow

PhD Candidate in History, University of Massachusetts Amherst

SSN Basic Facts: “The Troubling Legacies of U.S. Information Operations during the Iraq Occupation”

Caputi's research seeks to explain military communications with the public as a new kind of warfare.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hadi Khoshneviss, Central Florida SSN Graduate Fellow

PhD Candidate in Sociology, University of South Florida

SSN Key Findings: “What Limits on the Movement of Marginalized Groups Reveal about Ethno-Racial Politics in the United States”

Khoshneviss' research studies how, despite centuries of racialization, people from the Middle East in the U.S. became racially white.

 

 

Richard Barton, Central New York SSN Graduate Fellow

PhD Student in Government, Cornell University

Brief will be coming soon!

 

 

Sarah Perry, Central Ohio SSN Graduate Fellow

Masters Student in Public Health, The Ohio State University

SSN Basic Facts: “Improving Reproductive Health amid the Opioid Epidemic"

Perry's research focuses on reproductive health, tobacco and alcohol policy, and the interaction between policy and health.

 

 

William Scarborough, Chicagoland SSN Graduate Fellow

PhD Candidate in Sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago

SSN Basic Facts: “Why There are No Quick Economic Fixes for Women in Developing Countries”

Scarborough's research explores how the rise in unemployment that occurred during the great recession impacted household gender relations and patterns of gender inequality in the paid labor force.

 

 

Joseph Anthony, Confluence SSN Graduate Fellow

 PhD Candidate in Political Science, University of Missouri, St. Louis

 SSN Basic Facts: “The Importance of Updating the Help America Vote Act”

Anthony's research focuses on elections administration and voting rights, social movements, and political parties.

 

 

Alice Lépissier, Energy & Environment Working Group

PhD Candidate in Environmental Science and Management, University of California Santa Barbara

SSN Key Findings: “Workable Policies to Fight Climate Change and Bridge the Interests of Developing and Industrialized Countries”

Lépissier’s research interests include energy transitions, carbon pricing, and pathways for decarbonization.

 

 Emily Parker, Finger Lakes SSN Graduate Fellow

 PhD Candidate in Public Policy Analysis, Cornell University

 SSN Basic Facts: "How the Risk of Losing Health Insurance Varies across Working Lifetimes for Different Sets of Americans"

Parker’s research focuses on access to primary care and health insurance, aging, gender and family, as well as urban environments and spatial demography. 

 

 

Kirsten Widner, Georgia SSN Graduate Fellow

PhD Candidate in Political Science, Emory University

SSN Basic Facts: “School Readiness and Equal Opportunity Start at Birth”

Widner’s research is focused on democratic participation by non-voters, including those who are legally prevented from voting (e.g. children, noncitizen immigrants, and incarcerated people), as well those who face structure barriers to voting.

 

 

Noreen Kohl, Hawaii SSN Graduate Fellow

 PhD Candidate in Sociology, University of HawaiI Manoa

 SSN Key Findings: “Why Hawai’I Families and Businesses Would Benefit from a New paid Family Leave Law”

Kohl's research focuses on social inequalities related to the criminal justice system as well as on issues related to health and wellbeing.

 

 

Natalie Veldhouse, Iowa SSN Graduate Fellow

Graduate Research Assistant and Master of Social Work Candidate, University of Iowa

SSN Key Findings: “How Food Stamps and Pantries Succeed – and Fall Short – at Alleviating Hunger in an Iowa County and Beyond”

Veldhouse’s research interests involve poverty, morality, social policy, and community development. 

 

 

Kushan Dasgupta, Los Angeles Unified SSN Graduate Fellow

Doctoral Candidate in Public Policy, University of Southern California

SSN Basic Facts: “How Improved Partnerships between Government and Community Organizations Can Help Implement Minimum Wage Increases”

Dasgupta’s research focuses on how non-union labor organizations organize and advocate in the pursuit of policy goals.

 

 

Evan Crawford, Madison SSN Graduate Fellow

PhD Candidate in Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison

SSN Key Findings: “Why Nonpartisan- Versus Partisan – School Board Elections Do Not Tell the Whole Story”

Crawford's research focuses on elections and voting behavior at the local level, with a particular emphasis on the politics of school board elections. 

 

 

Olivia Bogucki, Maine SSN Graduate Fellow

Doctoral Candidate in Clinical Psychology, The University of Maine

SSN Basic Facts: “Misconceptions about Depression in Older Adulthood”

Bogucki's research focuses on the development and maintenance of major depressive disorder.

 

 

Sarah Galey, Michigan SSN Graduate Fellow

PhD Candidate in Education, Michigan State University

Brief will be coming soon!

Galey's research interests include educational politics, policy networks, district policy implementation, and instructional coaching.

 

 

Lewis Bivona, New Jersey SSN Graduate Fellow

PhD Candidate, Rutgers University

SSN Basic Facts: "How American Cities Can Promote Urban Agriculture"

Bivona's research falls largely in two areas: sustainable urban planning and agricultural and food systems policy.

 

 

Daniel Shattuck, New Mexico SSN Graduate Fellow

Research Assistant, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

SSN Key Findings: “What Schools Can Do to Reduce Risky Behaviors and Suicides among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youth”

Shattuck's research focuses on the anthropology of food and health disparities for vulnerable or underserved groups with a particular interest in sexual and gender minority populations.

 

 

Estilla Lightfoot, New Orleans SSN Graduate Fellow

Predoctoral Fellow in City, Culture, and Community, Tulane University

SSN Basic Facts: “How Revised Charter School Criteria Could Help Reduce the Epidemic of Disconnected Youth in New Orleans”

Lightfoot's research focuses on topics related to special education in New Orleans and nationwide, including the effects of policy changes on special education funding structures in charter and public schools.

 

 

Isaac Jabola-Carolus, New York City SSN Graduate Fellow

PhD Student in Sociology, City University of New York

SSN Basic Facts: “How Participatory Budgeting Strengthens Communities and Improves Local Governance”

Jabola-Carolus' research focuses on labor and social movements, urban politics, and participatory democracy.

 

 

Kristi Andrasik, Northeast Ohio SSN Graduate Fellow

PhD Student in Urban Policy, Cleveland State University

SSN Key Findings: “How People are Endangered by Ordinances That Punish Property Owners for Repeated Emergency Calls”

Andrasik's research focuses on issues of social equity, specifically at the intersection of lived experience, service delivery/implementation, philanthropy, and public policy.

 

 

Jane López, San Diego SSN Graduate Fellow

PhD Candidate in Sociology, University of California, San Diego

SSN Key Findings: “Why Laws Targeting Non-Citizen Immigrants Affect Citizen Family Members and Associates, Too”

López's research focuses on citizenship, immigration, and the law, primarily through the lens of mixed-citizenship couples (couples composed of individuals from two different countries/with two different citizenships).

 

 

Michael Baker, Tennessee SSN Graduate Fellow

Master of Education Candidate in International Education Policy and Management, Vanderbilt University

SSN Key Findings: “What State and Local Agencies Need to Know Before Making Large-Scale Purchases of Digital Technologies”

Baker's research focuses on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) policy, efficacy, and implementation in K-12 schools. 

 

 

Kenicia Wright, Texas SSN Graduate Fellow

PhD Candidate in Political Science, University of Houston

SSN Key Findings: “American Preferences about Health and Social Programs are Shaped by Intersections of Race, Gender, and Ideology”

Wright's research focuses on public policy, the interplay of race, gender, and political representation, representative bureaucracy, and state politics and policy.

 

 

Amanda Bertana, Utah SSN Graduate Fellow

PhD Candidate in Sociology, University of Utah

SSN Basic Facts: “How a Community in Fiji Relocated to Adapt to Climate Change”

Bertana’s research focuses on how relocation can be implemented as an adaptation to the impacts of climate change.