Madeline Adee is a Health Policy PhD student at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, with a specialization in Population Health and Data Science. Her research focuses on improving public health interventions and healthcare for people involved in the criminal justice system. She is also interested in the implementation process of prison reform programs and policies, including decarceration, and how these efforts can improve health and reduce health disparities. Prior to starting her PhD, she worked on studies assessing the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of different hepatitis C...
Jose is a doctoral student in the Policy, Politics, and Leadership program at UC Berkeley’s School of Education. His research interests include using computational social science methods to understand the factors influencing the aspirations of men of color in higher education, the access and equity in higher education for first-generation and traditionally underrepresented students, and students’ career pathways within educational contexts. Before this, Jose was a Computer Science & Math Teacher in Los Angeles, providing differentiated instruction for diverse students. Additionally, he...
Neena Albarus is a Ph.D. student in Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. She has a Master of Social Work from The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. Additionally, she has contributed to academia by instructing courses in the field of social work. Her research portfolio spans quantitative, qualitative, and participatory methods, with a focus on critical social issues such as substance use, mental health, and social violence in Jamaica. She is interested in integrating computational tools for social justice advancement.
Sequoia is a PhD student in the statistics department at UC Berkeley. Prior to joining Berkeley, she worked as a Research Engineer contractor at NASA and focused on wildfire safety related research. She holds a B.S. in mathematics and psychology from Santa Clara University, M.S. in statistical data science from San Francisco State University, and is an awardee of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. She is passionate about applying computational methods to complex and impactful real-world problems, with a focus on social good applications.
Alex is a PhD candidate in the Statistics department at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on explainability, fairness, and auditing in machine learning. Most recently, he has worked on leveraging longitudinal data to improve feasibility in counterfactual explanations. Alex also was a member of the inaugural cohort of the AI Policy Hub, where he worked on policy proposals regarding explanations from AI decision-makers. Prior to his PhD program, Alex received a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Howard University.
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS), UC Berkeley
David Minh-Duy Cao is a first-year PhD student in Computer Science. His research work aims to engage the intersection between computing and social justice, designing computing and programming tools to reify just futures and empower minoritized communities towards self-determination. Prior to beginning his PhD, he received majors in Computer Science (B.S.) and Ethnic Studies (B.A.) from UC San Diego. His current computing interests draw from his prior research work, which focused on using program synthesis and programming languages research to improve programming accessibility. He has also...
Pia Deshpande is a Political Science PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley. She is broadly interested in race, political behavior, and social inequity in American Politics. So far, she has worked on projects examining white American reactions to demographic change, narrative techniques to reduce prejudice against different outgroups, and asymmetric political mobilization as a result of elite weaponization of language. She is starting new work on evictions leading to political disenfranchisement. Before starting at Berkeley, Pia worked as an academic researcher at the...
Peter Forberg is a PhD student in Sociology at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on the connections between digital technology, the administrative state, and political movements. In particular, he is interested in how political actors are using technology to reshape contemporary knowledge and enact their political visions. Prior to entering graduate school, Peter conducted independent research on the political conspiracy group QAnon. In future research, he hopes to combine the methods of computational data science with those of qualitative content analysis and participant observation....
Taylor Galdi is a JD/PhD student in Berkeley Law's Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program. Her research focuses on courts, social movements and social change, and the legal profession. Prior to starting her PhD, Taylor worked as a Mitigation Specialist at the Center for Community Alternatives and as a Lab Manager at the University of Michigan Law School. Taylor holds an MFA in Literary Nonfiction Writing from Eastern Washington University and a BA in Psychology from the University of Michigan.
Omair is a PhD student at the Goldman School of Public Policy. His current research focuses on the impacts of California’s Three-Strikes law and free prison communications. Prior to starting his PhD, Omair was a research associate at the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley, where he worked on projects related to prison sentencing and criminal law. Omair holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from UC Davis.
