Graduate Fellows

Daniel Lobo

Berkeley Computational Social Science Fellow
Sociology, UC Berkeley

Daniel Lobo is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at UC Berkeley. Historically, his research interests have been in education inequality in K-12 and higher education, with a focus on the life outcomes of low-income students. Lobo is currently interested in two lines of research: the global political economy of higher education and the effects of social media on cultural production and reproduction. Epistemologically, he seeks to leverage big data and machine learning to bridge disciplines in his research and to ask predictive questions in the social sciences. As a CSSTP fellow,...

Liza Lutzker

Berkeley Computational Social Science Fellow
Epidemiology, Public Health, UC Berkeley

Liza Lutzker is an Epidemiology PhD student at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Her research focuses on how traffic safety outcomes and disparities in the US are affected by current and historical institutions, policies and practices which embed biases against poor people or racially minoritized groups. Her current project examines the efficacy of traditional police traffic enforcement on preventing fatal and severe traffic collisions. Prior to pursuing a PhD, Liza worked broadly in the field of environmental and occupational epidemiology at the Massachusetts and California...

Marisa Tsai

Berkeley Computational Social Science Fellow
Epidemiology, Public Health, UC Berkeley

Marisa Tsai is a PhD student in Epidemiology at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the effects of early life nutrition and the role of federal nutrition assistance programs in reducing health disparities, increasing food security, and improving dietary intake. Prior to starting her PhD, she worked on studies evaluating policy changes in school meals, healthy retail policies, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. Marisa holds an MS and MPH in Food and Nutrition Policy and Programs from the Friedman School of Nutrition...

Christina Misunas

Berkeley Computational Social Science Fellow

Christina Misunas is a PhD student in Demography at UC Berkeley. Her research to date has focused on the intersection of gender, health, and education in low- and middle-income countries. For the past five years, she has worked with Population Council and UNICEF’s Data Analysis Unit on research around girls’ education, child marriage, and adolescent childbearing. Prior to working in research, Christina spent several years in Washington, DC, working on global advocacy and programming for sexual and reproductive health with Marie Stopes International and the Open Society Foundations. Misunas...

Eric Rawn

Berkeley Computational Research for Equity in the Legal System Fellow
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS), UC Berkeley

Eric Rawn is a PhD Student in Computer Science with a focus on Human-Computer Interaction and Programming Languages. They study how data scientists and other expert practitioners use programming environments in order to support them with better tools.

Ángel Mendiola Ross

Berkeley Computational Social Science Fellow, Berkeley Computational Research for Equity in the Legal System Fellow
Sociology, UC Berkeley

Ángel Mendiola Ross is a PhD candidate in sociology with a designated emphasis in Global Metropolitan Studies. He conducts research at the intersection of (sub)urban sociology, race and inequality, housing, and policing. Their current project examines land use policies and law enforcement practices in newer, fast-growing suburbs to better understand contemporary drivers of segregation in the post-civil rights era. Their past work empirically tested evidence of racial threat and renter threat in California suburbs with a focus on communities on the receiving end of gentrification and...

Arisa Sadeghpour

Berkeley Computational Research for Equity in the Legal System Fellow
Statistics, UC Berkeley

Arisa Sadeghpour is a third-year PhD student in Statistics advised by Dr. Erin Hartman. She is interested in developing statistical methods, specifically in causal inference, for social science applications. Previously, she graduated from Rice University with a degree in Computational and Applied Mathematics and was a fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Saron Goitom

Berkeley Computational Social Science Fellow
Epidemiology, Public Health, UC Berkeley

Saron Goitom is a PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health. Her current research interests include contextualizing the way in which stressful life events during pregnancy influence their children's internalizing behaviors in early childhood, by examining the influence of larger structural factors like poverty, trauma, racism and discrimination. In her previous work as a programmer analyst, she was involved in evaluating the effectiveness of safety-net programs in reducing acute care utilization and increasing long-term linkage to primary care,...

Alex Schulte

Berkeley Computational Social Science Fellow
Health Policy, Public Health, UC Berkeley

Alex Schulte is a Health Policy PhD student at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the role of social and organizational networks in improving equitable access to healthcare, in particular sexual and reproductive healthcare. Alex is interested in leveraging computational social science methods, such as causal inference and machine learning, to address complex research questions with the goal of improving health equity. Prior to starting her PhD, Alex led sexual and reproductive health programming at the Deloitte Health Equity Institute in New York City. She...

Sofia Guo

Berkeley Computational Social Science Fellow
Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

Sofia is an MSW/PhD student at the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare studying under Dr. Jill Duerr Berrick. Her research interests include analyzing front line child welfare decision making and applying econometrics tools to practice issues in the field.The CSSTP fellowship will support development of text analysis and modeling skills, in addition to training in leading data science techniques.Sofia received her BA in Economics from UC Berkeley in 2019. Prior to entering graduate school, Sofia was an assistant budget analyst at...