With over 300 graduates of our doctoral program, Berkeley Social Welfare produces top-notch professors and researchers for some of the best social work schools and policy centers throughout the country and around the globe. We are proud of the rigorous conceptual mentoring our students receive and how they have each drawn extensively on the larger intellectual assets of the world's leading public university. They have conducted research, published in leading journals and have significant teaching experience in undergraduate- and/or graduate-level courses. Each one of these emerging scholars will bring a unique set of skills, both in scholarly pursuits and in their ability to shape future leaders among their students.
Current Students and PhD Candidates
Eunkyung Chung
eunkyung.chung@berkeley.edu; she/her
Education
- PhD, May 2024 (expected)
- MA, Seoul National University, 2017
- BA, Seoul National University, 2014
Research Interests: social-emotional development of disabled youth; identity; developmental assets/resources; violence and victimization; diversity, equity, and inclusion in K-12 schools and higher education; critical and ecological perspectives
Alagia Justice Cirolia
alagiacirolia@berkeley.edu; she/they
Education:
- PhD, University of California, Berkeley, May 2026 (Expected)
- MSW, University of California, Berkeley, May 2023 (Expected)
- BA, University of California, Berkeley 2017
Research Interests: School Ecology; School Mental Health; Critical Theory and Education; School Equity; Latinx Mental Health; Culture and Belief Systems and Mental Health; Trauma-Informed Systems; Relational Interventions; Dissemination & Implementation; Participatory Action Research; Quantitative Critical Research
Luca Connolly
Luca_connolly@berkeley.edu; she/her
Education
- PhD, University of California, Berkeley, May 2025 (Expected)
- MSW, University of California, Berkeley, May 2022 (Expected)
- BA, University of Virginia, May 2017
Research Interests: Community-based carceral abolition practices and strategies, community-based interventions into structural violence, community organizing and activism, mass incarceration, criminalization, policing, law and legal studies, transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming communities, race, racism and white-supremacy, community resilience strategies, social movement histories, the non-profit industrial complex, participatory research, qualitative methods
Monica De La Cruz
Education
- PhD, May 2023 (expected)
- MPH, University of San Francisco, 2015
- BS, San Francisco State University, 2008
Research Interests: children, youth, and families; family poverty; basic needs insecurity; social determinants of health; mixed methods research
Nehal Eldeeb
Education
- PhD, May 2023 (expected)
- MSW, University of Pennsylvania, 2019
- BSc, Georgetown University, 2012
Research Interests: Prevention of child maltreatment, accessible parenting education, dissemination of knowledge, implementation science, mixed-methods
Douglas Epps
Education
- PhD, May 2023 (expected)
- MSW, University of Washington, 2015
- BA, University of Washington, 2013
Research Interests: mass detention & immigration control policy; holistic approaches to decarceration; cross-racial collective action strategies; Othering and criminalization; public opinion & political engagement; critical mixed-methods; action-oriented research
berkeley.academia.edu/DouglasEpps
Anthony Gómez
anthonygomez@berkeley.edu
Education:
- PhD, May 2025 (expected)
- MSW, University of California, Los Angeles, 2020
- BA, Pomona College, 2015
Research interests: kinship care, foster care, child welfare, parenting, child development, family policy, early education, poverty
Demond Hill
Education
- PhD, 2024 (expected)
- MA, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2020
- BA, Edgewood College, 2018
Research Interests: Black Child Development; Black Youth Development; Black Family Studies; Black Critical Theories & Qualitative Methodologies; Black Resistance, Survival, and Liberation; Black Radical Healing, Joy and Beauty in Educational Spaces; Youth and Community-Centered Research; Ethnography; Space and Place
Luyi Jian
Education
- PhD, May 2024 (expected)
- MSW, Washington University in St. Louis, 2019
- MS, People's Public Security University of China, 2007
- BE, Tongji University, 2003
Research Interests: prevention and intervention of antisocial behavior, prosocial identity, adolescent development, juvenile justice, quantitative methods, mixed methods
Ryan Karnoski
Education
- PhD, May 2025 (expected)
- MSW, University of Washington, Seattle, 2017
- BASW, University of Washington, Seattle, 2016
Research Interests: Sexual and gender minority youth in the public child welfare system, transgender health and welfare, microaggression, social stratification, adversity and resilience, imagined communities, semiotics, and social identity, systems of social service delivery, conceptual modeling
MinJee Keh
Education
- PhD, May 2024 (expected)
- MSW, Yonsei University, 2017
- BA, Yonsei University, 2015
Research Interests: poverty and inequality, low-income and precarious work, work-life balance, well-being of workers and their families, social welfare policy, social security system, quantitative methods, mixed methods
Tiffany Luo
Education
- PhD, May 2025 (expected)
- MSW, University of California, Berkeley, 2021
- BA, University of California, Berkeley, 2016
Research Interests: mental health, child and adolescent health, integrated behavioral health care, digital health interventions, health equity, implementation science, mixed methods
Sergio Martinez
Education
- PhD, May 2023 (expected)
- MPH, San Francisco State, 2011
- BS, San Francisco State, 2004
Research Interests Higher Learning; Barriers to College Success; Community College Persistence among Latinx/Chicanx and historically underrepresented minorities; Education Equity; Long-Duration Multicomponent Student Support Programs; Social Determinants of Health; Spectrum of Prevention; Critical Ecological Systems, Systems Change, Mixed Methods; Ethnography; (co)-Participant Observation Research; Critical Pedagogies; Cultural-Historical Activity Theory
Alejandro Nuñez
Education:
- PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2026 (expected)
- MSW, University of California, Berkeley, 2023 (expected)
- BA, University of California, Berkeley, 2016
Research Interests: Preventative interventions, implementation science, program evaluation, health and wellness; poverty, inequality, and mental health; antipoverty policy analysis, quantitative methods, mixed methods.
Orlando Parrales
PhD, May 2026 (expected)
Master of Science in Social Work, Columbia University, 2018
BASW, Texas Tech University, 2017
Research Interests: Latinx older adults; homelessness; homeless shelter services and utilization research; mental health and substance abuse treatment use; qualitative and mixed methods
Laura Elizabeth Pathak
Education
- PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2024 (expected)
- MSW, University of California, Berkeley, 2020
- BA, University of California, Berkeley 2012
Research Interests: Latinx mental health, health disparities, digital mental health interventions, digital social work, data privacy, community engaged research
Reiley Reed
Education:
- PhD, May 2025 (Expected)
- MSW, May 2022 (Expected)
- MPH, University of California, Berkeley, December 2014
- BA, University of California, Santa Barbara, March 2009
Research interests: reproductive and sexual health; reproductive autonomy and wellbeing; social determinants of health; health and health care disparities; power dynamics in health care; health equity; community-led research; mixed and qualitative research methods
Cheng Ren
Education
- PhD, May 2024 (expected)
- MSSA, Case Western Reserve University, 2017
- BA, Shanxi University, 2015
Research Interests: Community engagement and assessment, urban development, migration policy, migrant health and well-being, program evaluation, community database, computational social welfare
Valentin Q. Sierra, Jr.
Education
- PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2024 (expected)
- MSW, University of California, Berkeley, 2020
- BA, University of California, Davis 2017
Research Interests: Native American Youth; Urban Indian Health; Critical Suicide Studies; Historical Trauma Theory; Colonialism and Mental Health; Cultural Resilience Factors; Tribal Title IV-E Agreements and the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978; Digital Solutions to Health Disparities