Margaret Lee(she/her) is a PhD student in Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research examines immigrant-serving community-based organizations as social welfare innovators, focusing on how care, emotion, culture, and policy intersect in everyday practice. Using qualitative and mixed-methods approaches, she studies how institutional logics and emotional labor shape service delivery and workforce wellbeing—particularly within Southeast Asian and other marginalized communities—and how community organizations translate state programs into...
Alagia Justice Cirolia(she/they) is a PhD student who received both their BA in Cognitive Science with High Honors (‘17) and MSW (‘23) from UC Berkeley. Alagia is a proud multi-racial, first-generation scholar from Oceanside, CA, who became motivated by their own academic experiences to study school-based mental health services and their impact on under-resourced communities. Alagia is committed to transforming educational systems in order to promote youth mental health and wellbeing and foster belonging among marginalized students.
Reiley Reed, MPH, MSW (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in Social Welfare at UC Berkeley. She studies reproductive health equity and power dynamics in health care and social services. Reiley is currently a T32 National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism predoctoral fellow with the Alcohol Research Group, a graduate student researcher at the Sexual Health and Reproductive Equity Program at UC Berkeley, and an instructor at Berkeley City College.
In her mixed methods dissertation research, Reiley is exploring social worker experiences with and...
Neena Albarus(she/her) is a doctoral student in the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research experience spans structural violence, community development, and the intersections of policy and public health in Jamaica and the Caribbean. Her dissertation explores interventions addressing the commercial sexual exploitation of children in Jamaica. Neena is committed to using data to advance social interventions across the Caribbean and other underrepresented regions.
Tiffany Luo, MSW, PPSC(she/her) is a PhD Candidate in the School of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley. Tiffany is a social work educator, practitioner, and researcher. She has six years of teaching experience across the MSW, BASW, and high school levels, and she is passionate about employing inclusive teaching methods, embracing critical pedagogical approaches, and providing supportive mentorship to prepare social work students to deliver culturally responsive care to underserved populations. She received UC Berkeley’s Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award...
Leyi (Joy) Zhou(she/her) is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Social Welfare, with a Designated Emphasis in Global Metropolitan Studies. She received her bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Tsinghua University in China and her MSW from the...
Laura Pathak is a PhD candidate (combined MSW/PhD program) whose research bridges ethics, technology, and social policy. Her work focuses on data privacy, ownership, and participatory approaches to AI governance, with particular attention to their implications for marginalized populations and social work practice and policy.
Prior to graduate study, Laura served as Program Director at a Berkeley-based community nonprofit supporting immigrant families, as Product Manager at a nonprofit healthcare technology startup developing mobile health interventions for low-...
Alejandro Nuñez(he/him) is a Mexican American Ph.D. student in Social Welfare at UC Berkeley. Having grown up between Mexico and Salinas, CA, he is dedicated to advancing culturally responsive social emotional learning (SEL) and school-based mental health supports that uplift Latiné and Spanish-speaking students and families. Alejandro collaborates closely with educators and education leaders to investigate how implementation strategies and education policy shape access to mental health wellness supports, with a focus on creating more equitable and caring...
Aldazia Green(she/her) is a fourth-year Ph.D. student at the School of Social Welfare. Her research examines the racial fairness of algorithmic risk assessment tools utilized in the criminal justice system. Through her commitment to both research and practice, she has gained experience in policy advocacy, program implementation, and computational analysis. As an emerging quantitative and critical scholar, Aldazia strives to improve mental health treatment and criminal justice policy in the United States. As an emerging quantitative and critical scholar,...
