Sawyer Hogenkamp

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Sawyer completed an M.Ed. in Human Development and Psychology at Harvard University. He also holds a M.Ed. and B.Ed. from Queen’s University, and B.A. from University of Waterloo, majoring in Music, and Human Geography & Environmental Management. He is pursuing a PhD to further the study of relational youth violence and school climate to encompass under-supervised contexts within and outside of school grounds, such as in neighborhoods, virtual spaces, or on school buses. He serves as a consultant with an organization in Canada that trains school bus drivers on bullying prevention and mental health awareness. He’s also engaged in supporting social emotional learning in underserved populations domestically (urban and rural America), and abroad (urban and rural China). Research skills include both qualitative and quantitative analysis as well as mixed methods, having participated with interdisciplinary research groups collaborating with Canadian Federal and Provincial Government Agencies, Universities, and private organizations. Currently Sawyer is working with the APA Taskforce on Violence Against Educators, organizing and analyzing data and policy of qualitative data from school psychologists, social workers, counselors, administrators, teachers, and school staff.

Kimberly Fuentes

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Kimberly Fuentes, MSW is a recent graduate of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs in Social Welfare. She is currently a first year PhD student in Social Welfare at Luskin where she studies the impacts of criminalization on sex working communities, the ways they resist criminalization, and the role that social work can play in uplifting this resistance. She hopes to utilize participatory action research and art-based methods to identify the alternative systems of community care that are used to mitigate and resist the forces of the police state and theorize the state from the vantage point of sex workers. She serves on the board of directors at the Sex Worker Outreach Project – Los Angeles (SWOP-LA) where she leads a nationwide support group for current and former sex workers and provides direct support to street-based workers through a harm reduction framework. Kimberly is a student affiliate of the California Center for Population Research (CCPR) and a recipient of the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. She is currently a research assistant at the UCLA Hub for Health Intervention, Policy and Practice where she works on research studies exploring the effect of criminalization on violence and victimization of sex workers.

Kimberly earned her Master of Social Welfare in Social and Economic Justice with a certificate in Global Health and Social Services. During her time in the MSW program, Kimberly received the Graduate Opportunity Fellowship (GOFP) and served as a Luskin Leadership Fellow at the Office of Child Protection (OCP). Her completed research capstone, “Revolutionizing Community Under the Red Umbrella: Intersectional Inquiry with Sex Workers on Protective Factors in Los Angeles, CA”, received awards from the Center for the Study of Women’s Black Feminism Initiative, UCLA Lewis Center for Policy Research, Franklin D. Gilliam Jr. Social Justice Award, and a departmental award for outstanding research.

She is a proud first-generation student whose family immigrated from Oaxaca, Mexico. Prior to UCLA, she earned a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Geography with a minor in Math and Science education from UC Santa Barbara.

 

Jessica Bremner

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Jessica Bremner is a PhD candidate in Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interests lie at the intersections of spatial justice, gender, housing, participatory practices, and democracy. Her dissertation research examines the processes that shape the spatial inequality of water access in the Coachella Valley. Jessica was awarded the Babbitt Dissertation Fellowship from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to support this research.

Prior to entering the PhD program at UCLA, Jessica was the Planning Director of Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI), a non-profit community development and design firm based in Los Angeles, USA and Nairobi, Kenya. Jessica has coordinated, supervised, and implemented community development programs aimed at empowering communities around the world. Her projects have ranged in scope and scale from a on online portal to identify water and sanitation connections in Kibera, Kenya to a Play Street pilot project for the City of Los Angeles to the development of a 5-acre park in the Eastern Coachella Valley. She has led dozens of participatory workshops to design, build, and implement public space projects that address social, economic, and physical needs of low-income communities. Her projects and processes have been featured in the New York Times and exhibited at the Louisiana Art Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt in New York, USA. Her dissertation builds from six years of working in the Coachella Valley with KDI.

Before joining KDI, she assisted management and evaluation of the Inter-American Foundation’s Brazil and Ecuador grant portfolios and worked for the Planning Department of the City of West Hollywood. Jessica holds a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American Studies from Tulane University and dual Master of Arts in Urban Planning and Latin American Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. Past research projects include examining informality and slum upgrading programs in Brazil and community-engaged research on unpermitted housing and displacement in Los Angeles.

Madeline Wander

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Madeline Wander is a UCLA Urban Planning PhD candidate and a graduate student researcher at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies and the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies. Her research examines transportation disparities and justice amidst the changing geography of low-income communities of color, particularly in suburbs. Madeline holds a BA in Urban and Environmental Policy from Occidental College and a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA. Madeline sits on the Board of Directors of the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment.

Prior to pursuing her PhD, she was a Senior Data Analyst at the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (now USC Equity Research Institute) where she worked with community-based organizations, foundations, and government agencies on research around equitable urban planning, social-movement building, and environmental justice. Prior to that, she was involved in a variety of organizing efforts, including the affordable housing coalition Housing LA and Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign in Colorado.

Madeline is co-author of several publications, including: Housing Affordability and Commute Distance (Urban Geography); Carbon trading, co-pollutants, and environmental equity: Evidence from California’s cap-and-trade program (PLoS Medicine); The Haves, the Have-Nots, and the Health of Everyone: The Relationship Between Social Inequality and Environmental Quality (Annual Review of Public Health).

Madeline lives in northeast Los Angeles with her partner Ben and their children Hannah and Noah.

Chenglin Hong

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Chenglin Hong is a PhD Candidate in Social Welfare at UCLA. Trained as a social worker, Chenglin’s research focuses on addressing health inequities among sexual and gender minority and other LGBTQ+ populations. His work is centered primarily on the development and testing of interventions that aim to improve sexual health and mental health outcomes among gay, bisexual, and other sexual minority men (SMM), with a particular focus on HIV and intimate partner violence (IPV) in the U.S. and globally. Chenglin’s work lies at the intersection of social work, public health, psychology, and data science, with the aim of developing interventions that disrupt violence, stigma, HIV, and other syndemic conditions among the SMM communities. He is particularly interested in examining the feasibility and acceptability and developing and testing eHealth, mHealth, and other technology-based interventions and data science approaches (e.g., machine Learning, natural language processing) to promote IPV help-seeking and HIV prevention services such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among SMM.

Chenglin’s mixed-method dissertation titled “Utilizing Machine Learning and Technology-Based Intervention for IPV and HIV Prevention among SMM” was funded by the American Psychological Association (APA) Science Directorate, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), the UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship program, and received honorable mention in the inaugural Grand Challenges for Social Work Doctoral Award.

Since he started the Ph.D. program, Chenglin has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles and presented more than 40 abstracts at leading national and international conferences. As a global health researcher, he has established collaborations with researchers from the University of Michigan, the University of Washington, Emory University, and collaborators in China, Ukraine, and Kenya. His current work also includes community engagements with providers and partners in community organizations such as the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Before UCLA, he received his Master of Social Work and Master of Public Health (MSW/MPH) from the University of Washington (Seattle).

Selected Publications: 

Hong, C., Flinn, R.E., Miyashita, A., John, S.A., Garth, G, & Holloway, I.W. (in press). Internalized homophobia and social well-being among Black sexual minority men with HIV: The mediating role of LGBT community connectedness and racial and sexual identity integration. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity

Hong, C. (2023). Mpox on Reddit: a Thematic Analysis of Online Posts on Mpox on a Social Media Platform among Key Populations. Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 10.1007/s11524-023-00773-4. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-023-00773-4

Hong, C. (2023). Characterizing the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on HIV PrEP care: A Review and Synthesis of the Literature. AIDS and behavior, 27(7), 2089–2102. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-022-03941-w

Hong, C., Queiroz, A., & Hoskin, J. (2023). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, associated factors and coping strategies in people living with HIV: a scoping review. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 26(3), e26060. https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.26060

Hong, C., Hoskin, J., Berteau, L. K., Schamel, J. T., Wu, E. S. C., King, A. R., Randall, L. A., HBOU Study Team, Holloway, I. W., & Frew, P. M. (2023). Violence Victimization, Homelessness, and Severe Mental Illness Among People Who Use Opioids in Three U.S. Cities. Journal of interpersonal violence, 38(19-20), 11165–11185. https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605231179720

Hong, C., Ochoa, A. M., Wilson, B. D. M., Wu, E. S. C., Thomas, D., & Holloway, I. W. (2023). The associations between HIV stigma and mental health symptoms, life satisfaction, and quality of life among Black sexual minority men with HIV. Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation, 32(6), 1693–1702. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-023-03342-z

Hong, C., Holloway, I. W., Graham, S. M., Simoni, J. M., Yu, F., Xue, H., Zhang, D., & Mi, G. (2023). Awareness of and Willingness to Use On-Demand HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Among Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men Using a Gay Social Networking App in China. AIDS patient care and STDs, 37(4), 155–158. https://doi.org/10.1089/apc.2023.0004

Hong, C., Holloway, I. W., Bednarczyk, R., Javanbakht, M., Shoptaw, S., & Gorbach, P. M. (2023). High Vaccine Confidence Is Associated with COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake in Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men Who Use Substances. LGBT health, 10(6), 480–485. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2022.0255

Hong, C. (2023) The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in social work students: A scoping review and call for research and action, Social Work in Mental Health, 21:3, 329-346, DOI: 10.1080/15332985.2023.2196361

Hong, C., & Graff, N. R., Guthrie, B., Micheni, M., Chirro, O., Wahome, E., van der Elst, E., Sanders, E. J., Simoni, J. M., & Graham, S. M. (2023). The Effect of the Shikamana Peer-and-Provider Intervention on Depressive Symptoms, Alcohol Use, and Other Drug Use Among Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men in Kenya. AIDS and Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-023-04027-x

Hong, C., Yu, F., Xue, H., Zhang, D., & Mi, G. (2022). The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in China: Difference by HIV status. Journal of psychiatric research, 154, 198–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.07.028

Hong, C., Huh, D., Schnall, R., Garofalo, R., Kuhns, L. M., Bruce, J., Batey, D. S., Radix, A., Belkind, U., Hidalgo, M. A., Hirshfield, S., & Pearson, C. R. (2023). Changes in high-risk sexual behavior, HIV and other STI testing, and PrEP use during the COVID-19 pandemic in a longitudinal cohort of adolescent men who have sex with men 13 to 18 years old in the United States. AIDS and Behavior, 27(4), 1133–1139. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-022-03850-y

Hong, C., Stephenson, R., Santos, G. M., Garner, A., Howell, S., & Holloway, I. (2022). Intimate Partner Violence Victimization During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among a Global Online Sample of Sexual Minority Men. Journal of family violence, 1–10. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-022-00461-y

Hong, C., Yu, F., Xue, H., Zhang, D., & Mi, G. (2022). HIV Testing Among Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men During the COVID-19 Pandemic in China: Implications for Promoting HIV Self-Testing Among Key Populations. AIDS patient care and STDs, 36(12), 451–457. https://doi.org/10.1089/apc.2022.0184

Hong, C., Abrams, L. S., & Holloway, I. W. (2022). Technology-Based Interventions to Promote the HIV Preexposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Care Continuum: Protocol for a Systematic Review. JMIR research protocols, 11(3), e33045. https://doi.org/10.2196/33045

Hong, C., Feinstein, B. A., Holloway, I. W., Yu, F., Huang, W., Sullivan, P. S., Siegler, A. J., & Mi, G. (2022). Differences in Sexual Behaviors, HIV Testing, and Willingness to Use PrEP between Gay and Bisexual Men Who Have Sex with Men in China. International Journal of Sexual Health, 0(0), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/19317611.2022.2053922

Hong, C., Puttkammer, N., Riabokon, S., Germanovich, M., Shost, A., Parrish, C., Shapoval, A., & Dumchev, K. (2022). Patient-Reported Treatment Satisfaction and Quality of Life Among People Living with HIV Following the Introduction of Dolutegravir-Based ART Regimens in Ukraine. AIDS and Behavior, 26(4), 1056–1073. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-021-03461-z

Hong, C., Horvath, K. J., Stephenson, R., Nelson, K. M., Petroll, A. E., Walsh, J. L., & John, S. A. (2022). PrEP Use and Persistence Among Young Sexual Minority Men 17-24 Years Old During the COVID-19 Pandemic. AIDS and Behavior, 26(3), 631–638. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-021-03423-5

Jihyun Oh

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Jihyun Oh earned her BA in Social Welfare at the Catholic University of Korea, her MA in Social Welfare at Seoul National University, and her MSW at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle. Prior to entering the UCLA doctoral program, in 2006-2011, she worked for various projects regarding measuring national minimum cost of living and producing Korean Welfare Panel Study data in the Division of Basic Social Security Research at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (a government-funded think tank). After completing her MSW, in 2017-2018, she interned in Partners for Our Children (UW-affiliated child welfare research center) in Seattle. Drawing on her research and practicum experiences in both Seoul and Seattle, Jihyun’s main research interest is child welfare and its association with relevant factors from both institutional and intergenerational contexts including parenting quality. Through her doctoral study at UCLA, Jihyun hopes to develop more comprehensive and systematic analysis that can contribute to improvements in child support policy and practice.

Stephanie Kathan

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Stephanie Kathan (née Thorne) is a third year Social Welfare PhD student at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Stephanie earned her Master of Science in Social Work with a concentration in Administration and Policy Practice from the University of Texas at Austin and her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in Sexuality Studies from the University of California at Davis. She has worked with children and families in diverse environments for several years, including providing equine therapy, volunteering at a crisis nursery, providing tutoring services, completing family assessments, and in social work case management. Additionally, Stephanie has experience in developmental psychology research and child welfare research. Before starting at UCLA, Stephanie was a Research Associate at a state-wide Texas child placing agency. Stephanie’s research interests include foster care systems and child development improvements within multi-generational early childhood interventions. Stephanie is a member of the National Association of Social Workers and the Eta Tau chapter of Phi Alpha, the Social Work Honor Society.

Carol A. Leung, LCSW

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Carol A. Leung’s research area is broadly focused on the areas of gun violence and suicide prevention. Her dissertation focuses on whether proximal and distal suicide risk factors are associated with firearm use for suicide by women in different age groups. In this work, Carol evaluates whether there are precipitating circumstances and life events that predispose women to suicide by firearms. This research is of particular importance given the complexity of gun violence in the United States as well as the rising suicide rates among women.

Carol has advanced training in research methods and theory development and is particularly skilled in conducting quantitative research with large data sets, including the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention’s National Violent Death Reporting System. She has published her research in peer-reviewed journals, including International Social Work and the Journal of Aging & Social Policy. Recently, Carol published a manuscript entitled “Deploying an Ecological Model to Stem the Rising Tide of Firearm Suicide in Older Age.” Carol has taught or assisted in teaching courses for undergraduate and graduate students at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs since 2015. These include classes in health policy, aging and diversity, adult psychopathology, firearm violence, human behavior and the social environment, and research methods. Additionally, she has worked on three grant-funded projects in her area of research and presented at 11 conferences and workshops.

Carol is a licensed clinical social worker. Prior to UCLA, she worked as a psychotherapist at Flushing Hospital Outpatient Mental Health Clinic in New York City serving immigrant and refugee populations. Carol has six other publications in clinical training guides and book chapters on topics related to multicultural skills and mental health interventions. She graduated with honors from the University of Texas at Austin in Psychology with a Business Administration minor in 2009.

Leung, C.A. (2014). Bye-bye bullies. In M. Cheung, Therapeutic games and guided imagery Volume II: Working with children, adolescents and families with special needs and in multicultural settings (A13). Chicago, IL: Lyceum Books.

Cheung, M., & Leung, C.A. (To be published in 2019). Social-cultural and ecological perspective. In R. Ow & A. Poon (Eds.), Mental health and Social Work. New York, NY: Springer.