Person Category: PhD

subcategory for PhD students of the various Luskin programs

Laura Liévano-Karim

Laura Liévano-Karim is a Fulbright fellow and Ph.D. Candidate in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs in the Department of Social Welfare. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada and a Master in Public Policy degree from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. Before joining the Ph.D. program at the Department of Social Welfare, she worked as a researcher on diverse projects, both quantitative and qualitative, addressing multiple social justice dilemmas in Colombia including violence targeting populations of young people experiencing basic needs instability, throughout rural and urban zones of Colombia. Laura also worked as a lecturer at Universidad de los Andes teaching the undergraduate course: Qualitative Methods for Public Affairs.

Laura’s current research focuses on two areas: (1) violence against girls and young women in the global South and (2) the manner participatory research can support girl-driven violence prevention policy-making and programming.

Jihyun Oh

October 4, 2019/in Social Welfare Child Welfare, Poverty PhD, PhD Jobseeker PhD Students /by Oliver Ike

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.

Sara Wilf

October 4, 2019/in Social Welfare Adolescence, Civic Engagement, Critical Consciousness, Digital Organizing and Activism, Emerging adulthood, Social media, Sociopolitical Development PhD, PhD Jobseeker PhD Students /by Oliver Ike

Sara Wilf is a third-year doctoral student in Social Welfare. She uses quantitative and qualitative methods to explore youth civic engagement and youth-led change, with a focus on social media as a context. In her research, she seeks to amplify young people’s agency in creating sociopolitical change and imagining better futures. Her work has been supported by the Frank D. Gilliam Jr. Social Justice Award (2020, 2021), the Bedari Kindness Institute Summer Fellowship (2020), and the Graduate Research Mentorship (2021). She is an affiliate with the UCLA Race, Ethnicity, Politics & Society (REPS) Lab, and co-founding member of UC Survivors + Allies.

Previously, Sara worked in research and evaluation with youth-focused nonprofits in India, Chile, and the U.S. Sara graduated with an MPA in Social Policy from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and she also holds a BA in Comparative Literature – Spanish and English from Brown University, where she graduated magna cum laude.

You can follow Sara on Twitter at @SaraBWilf or learn more about her research at www.sarawilf.com.

Stephanie Kathan

October 4, 2019/in Social Welfare Child Development, Children and Families, Foster Care PhD, PhD Jobseeker PhD Students /by Oliver Ike

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.

Tam J. Guy

February 12, 2019/in Urban Planning Environmental Justice, Gender, Housing, Transportation PhD, Students /by Luskin Staff

Tam J. Guy is a doctoral student in Urban Planning at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs. Previously, Tam explored how planners can and should create sustainable places for everyone by researching equity impacts at the intersection of transportation, housing, and green infrastructure. Currently, Tam researches the public transit experiences of people who are transgender as part of a larger effort to understand the interactions between gender, public space, and public transportation.

Tam earned a BSBA in management and leadership from Portland State University while working as an analyst at a securities litigation firm and then completed dual masters degrees, MBA and MCMP, at the University of Utah in Business Administration (with emphases in strategy and innovation) and City + Metropolitan Planning (focused on smart growth, transportation, and urban design).

Brenda Morales

July 17, 2018/in Social Welfare Discrimination, Immigration Policy PhD PhD Students /by Mike Alvarez

Brenda Morales is currently a fifth year doctoral student in the Department of Social Welfare at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA. Her research interests include investigating risk factors that contribute to disparities in health care and mental health among undocumented Latino immigrants and their children.

She is currently a recipient of the Eugene V. Cota-Robles four-year fellowship, one of the most prestigious fellowships awarded by UCLA. Her research at UCLA has mainly focused on examining the mental health needs of Latino immigrants. One of her studies examined the fear of deportation and psychological wellbeing of immigrants, through the use of field research in a predominantly Hispanic community. Her research projects at UCLA have been funded through two Summer Graduate Research Mentorship ($6,000) awards in 2016-17 and 2017-18. Brenda is a graduate student researcher at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR), where she is involved in qualitative data analysis for the Center’s Research on Immigrant Health and State Policy (RIGHTS) project, which examines how state-level policies impact Chinese and Mexican immigrants’ access to health care and health status.

Before entering UCLA, she was part of the University of Michigan/CSULA Social Work Bridges to the Doctoral Program, where she analyzed secondary data from the California Health Interview Survey examining health care disparities among immigrant populations. Given the national attention to the concerns of the undocumented and immigrant community in the nation and the crisis and dangers facing families, her research informs the mental health and public policy community about responding to the needs of undocumented and immigrant community to better serve their mental health needs.

Brenda Morales was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She obtained her B.A. in Social Work in 2014 and her Master of Social Work (MSW) in 2016 from California State University, Los Angeles.

Hannah King

September 29, 2017/in Urban Planning Active Transportation, GIS, Transportation Finance PhD, Students /by Luskin Staff

Hannah is a doctoral student of transportation planning at UCLA. Prior to coming to UCLA, she spent several years in sea level rise and economic development planning at the state of Florida. Her current research interests center on active transportation, GIS, and transportation financing. She is being advised by Dr. Brian Taylor.

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahrking

Ana Maria Duran Calisto

December 12, 2016/in Urban Planning Architecture, Documentary Film, Environmental Planning and Design, Landscape Architecture, Latin American Architecture, Latin American Cities, Poetry, Spatial Ethnography, Urban Design, Urban Ecology, Visual Arts and Art History PhD, Students /by Luskin Staff

Ana Maria Duran Calisto is an Ecuadorean architect, urbanist and environmental planner. She co-founded the design firm Estudio A0 in 2002 with her partner Jaskran (Jazz) Singh Kalirai in Quito, Ecuador, after receiving a Master of Architecture from PennDesign at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Liberal Arts Bachelor´s degree from Universidad San Francisco de Quito. The main pursuit of Estudio A0 is to develop environmentally responsible design and construction systems at all scales, by focusing on the possibilities of recycling, in situ clean energy production, water harvesting and reuse, high and low-tech hybrids, the investigation of local materials, and the reactivation of local ecologies. She is currently undertaking a PhD in Urban Planning at UCLA, under the advice of Professor Susanna Hecht. The focus of her research is the history of urbanization in the Amazon River basin.

Website: www.estudioa0.com
Contact: 424-361-8785

Tam J. Guy

Hannah King

Ana Maria Duran Calisto

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