Visiting Poverty Scholars Program

Tina Law is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Davis. She studies inequality, race and ethnicity, democracy, and technology in the U.S. and specializes in computational methods (AI, natural language processing, and network analysis). Her current research focuses on applying computational methods to improve how neighborhood inequality is measured and how place-based housing and crime interventions are evaluated.

Law will be visiting the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality at Stanford University.

Bluesky: @tinalaw.bsky.social

Rachel Ludeke (she/they), PhD, LMSW, MPH, is an Assistant Professor in the Wayne State University School of Social Work whose research focuses on social support, education, and employment outcomes for youth transitioning from foster care, with particular attention to racial and ethnic disparities. Dr. Ludeke examines how social support networks, mental health access, and systemic inequities shape opportunities during the transition to adulthood, and they study network-based approaches to improving services and long-term well-being for transition-age youth. Their work is informed by their own experience as a young adult residing in a transitional living program, over a decade of social work practice in child welfare and higher education, and a completed Health Resources and Services Administration postdoctoral fellowship.

Ludeke will be visiting Poverty Solutions at University of Michigan.

Blanca Ramirez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research has been published in Social Problems, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and Latinx Studies.

Ramirez will be visiting the Center for Population, Inequality, and Policy at UC-Irvine.

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/blancaarramirez.bsky.social

Anna Strauss is an Assistant Professor in the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University – Bloomington. Strauss earned a PhD in Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, with specializations in social policy and public finance. Her research program uses applied microeconomics, causal inference techniques, and survey data to examine how anti-poverty policies such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) affect how recipients and their family members spend their time and money, with these findings helping to elucidate the mechanisms through which anti-poverty policies affect the health and well-being of recipients and their family members.

Strauss will be visiting the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University.

Vanessa Delgado is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Washington State University (WSU). Broadly, her work explores the incorporation pathways of low-income Latino/a immigrant families. She employs qualitative methods to examine how immigration laws exacerbate social and economic inequality among low-income Latino/a immigrants and their children.

Delgado will be visiting the Center for Poverty & Inequality Research at UC Davis.

Bluesky: ‪@vanessadelgado.bsky.social

Robert Francis (PhD, Johns Hopkins University) is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. Bob’s research interests include U.S. poverty and inequality, housing and homelessness, work and occupations, the working class, social policy, and rural communities.

Francis will be visiting the West Coast Poverty Center at the University of Washington.

X: @DrRobertFrancis
BlueSky: ‪@drrobertfrancis.bsky.social

Kimberly Higuera, PhD and MPP, is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly SLO). Her work examines how sending and receiving remittances impacts transnational Mexican family dynamics as well as how remittances can act as an oft-ignored force shaping the material hardship and wellbeing of Mexican immigrant families in the US.

Higuera will be visiting the Center for Poverty & Inequality Research at UC Davis.

Blue Sky: @kimbhiguera.bsky.social

Higuera was also a 2024 Early Career Mentoring Institute Grant Awardee.

Mitra Naseh is a forced migration scholar and an Assistant Professor at the Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, where she also serves as the Founding Director of the Forced Migration Initiative (FMI). Her research focuses on the multidimensional social and economic integration of forcibly displaced populations, shaped by her interdisciplinary academic training, lived experience as an immigrant, and extensive fieldwork with non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia.

Naseh will be visiting the Center for Poverty & Inequality Research at UC Davis.

Anna R. Haskins’ research examines how three of America’s most powerful social institutions—the education system, the family, and the criminal legal system—connect and interact in ways that both preserve and mitigate social inequality, with emphasis on early educational outcomes, intergenerational impacts, and disparities by race/ethnicity.

Haskins is visiting the Center for Population, Inequality, and Policy, at the University of California, Irvine.

X: @AnnaRHaskins, Department of Sociology: @sociologyND

Dr. Brian Holzman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development at Texas A&M University. His research examines the pathway to college, paying particular attention to first-and second-generation immigrants, English learners, students of color, and students from socioeconomically marginalized backgrounds. He completed an M.A. in Sociology and a Ph.D. in Sociology of Education and Higher Education Administration at Stanford University.

Holzman is visiting the Center for Population, Inequality, and Policy, at the University of California, Irvine.

X: brianholzman, Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development: TAMUEAHR

Bluesky: brianholzman.bsky.social

Dr. Ekjyot Saini earned her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Science from Auburn University, as well as a Masters in Social Work from the University of Michigan. Her program of research utilizes an interdisciplinary approach, including family systems perspectives and biopsychosocial models, to understand how family and sociocultural contexts contribute to the well-being of children and families across developmental periods. Saini is particularly interested in how relational (e.g., parenting, attachment) and regulatory processes (e.g., sleep, autonomic nervous system functioning) operate within stressful contexts such as socio-economic adversity, neighborhood and family environments, and social contexts of discrimination. She also examines how these factors contribute to socio-emotional and relational outcomes, as well as disparities in these domains.

Saini is visiting the Center for Poverty and Inequality Research, at the University of California, Davis.

X: @Ekjyot_Saini, Health and Human Development College: @pennstateHDFS

Dr. Kathryn Thompson is an Assistant Professor at Boston University’s School of Public Health (BUSPH) in the departments of Community Health Sciences and Health Law, Policy, and Management. Thompson’s research leverages economic frameworks to quantitatively study how social, demographic, and policy contexts shape health and disparities for women, people of color, and Medicaid populations. Her research provides evidence that social identities-like race/ethnicity-and social positions—like socioeconomic status—combine in unique ways to structure health care access, health service utilization, and health outcomes among vulnerable populations. Prior to joining BUSPH, she completed her PhD in Health Services Research at the Brown University School of Public Health.

Thompson is visiting the Institute for Research on Poverty, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

X: @Kathryn_DThomp, School of Public Health: @busph

Mariana Amorim is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Washington State University.  Her work sheds light on the role of public, private, and “shadow” safety nets in promoting the well-being of parents and children during an era of increasing family complexity and economic inequality.

Zibei Chen is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Social Work. She is a poverty scholar with a research agenda centered on understanding causes and consequences of living in a fringe economy and developing evidence-based interventions that promote financial capability and economic prosperity among the poor, racial minorities, and other financially disenfranchised groups. Her current research projects include investigating the role of income volatility in using alternative financial services, examining the impact of financial stability and asset building programs, and exploring the intersection of finance and health with a particular focus on the roles of race and class.

Chen is visiting the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality at Stanford University.

X: @Zibei1 | @utkcsw

Rene Crespin, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Economics at Michigan State University. His research focuses on examining levers that lessen or exacerbate inequality, specifically in terms of schools, housing, and neighborhoods. Among his ongoing projects, he studies the economic and social impacts of education and immigration policies.

Crespin is visiting the Center for Poverty & Inequality Research at the University of California, Davis.

X: @Crespin_Rene | @MSUEconomics

Qiana Cryer-Coupet, Ph.D., is Associate professor of Social Work in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. Her program of research explores drivers of health and wellness among fathers and the impacts of father involvement and engagement on child, caregiver, and community well-being.

Cryer-Coupet is visiting the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

X: @qcryercoupet