​Burcu Baykurt, a PhD candidate in communications at Columbia University, studies the social and cultural implications of digital technology, particularly the use of big data in urban development and local governance. Her work draws on and contributes to cultural sociology, public policy, and social studies of science.

​Andrew Breck is a PhD candidate at New York University’s Graduate School of Public Service and a pre-doctoral fellow at the School of Medicine. His research interests are at the intersection of social policy and health behavior, with the goal of understanding how policies can influence nutrition and nutrition related diseases.

​Vicki Chen is a PhD candidate in University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Health Care Management and Economics. Her research concentrates on health care provider competition and organization and its influence on social welfare. Formerly, she worked at the Urban Institute and holds a BA from Princeton University.

​As an interdisciplinary social scientist at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, Elizabeth Clark studies cooperation to confront challenges in natural resource use and conservation. She integrates approaches from economics, political ecology, and institutional scholarship.

​Ellen Dinsmore is a PhD candidate in sociology at the Center for Demography and Ecology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research explores how criminal justice systems both reflect and exacerbate inequalities within populations. She has worked at the Vera Institute of Justice and collaborated with the Madison Police Department.

​Philip Garboden is a doctoral student in sociology and applied math at Johns Hopkins University. He holds a Master of Public Policy from the same institution. His work focuses on the ways housing policies intersect with the decisions of private landlords, developers, and tenants to impact low-income communities.

​Ausmita Ghosh is a PhD candidate in economics with a concentration in health economics and public economics. Her research focuses on the role of government programs and economic conditions on health, healthcare use, and the economic well-being of vulnerable populations.

​Sebastian Lemire has over ten years of experience managing research and evaluation in the fields of education, market development, and social welfare. His professional areas of interest revolve around alternative approaches to impact evaluation and research syntheses.

​Erik Lin-Greenberg is a PhD candidate in political science at Columbia University where he studies international relations. His current research examines the effect of technology on armed conflict. Prior to attending Columbia, he served as an officer in the United States Air Force.

​Timothy Passmore is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Colorado–Boulder. His research focuses on conflict and peace studies. His research interests include peacekeeping, terrorism and political violence, religion and conflict, and the politics of Africa and the Middle East.

​Rebecca Perlman is a PhD candidate in political science at Stanford University. Her research focuses on how governments regulate risk in a globalized economy. She received her BA from Princeton University and also holds a master’s degree from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

​Davin Reed is a PhD candidate in public policy at New York University. His research addresses questions in urban and labor economics. He is currently studying the effects of eviction and the causes and consequences of gentrification.

​Manuel Rosaldo is a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of California–Berkeley. His work analyzes efforts to improve the incomes, conditions, and political voice of informal recyclers in Brazil and Colombia.

​Shiran Shen is a PhD candidate in political science at Stanford University. Her research explores the influence of local political tenure cycles on air pollution control in China, the US, and Mexico. She holds an MS in civil and environmental engineering from Stanford and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College.

​Benjamin Shestakofsky is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of California–Berkeley. His research examines how innovations in computing are changing work and employment organizations, and economic exchange. He is also a 2016–2017 Scholars Strategy Network Graduate Fellow.

​Talia Shiff is a JD-PhD candidate in law and sociology at Northwestern University. Her research examines the processes through which norms and institutions inform legal categories. Her dissertation focuses on questions of categorization and evaluation through an examination of the ways adjudicators translate applicant testimonies into cognizable narratives for asylum.

​Sujeong Shim is a PhD candidate in political science at University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research interests include international finance, international organizations, economic crisis, and public opinion. Her latest work examines how public opinion affects the IMF program’s design and efficacy.

​Jamie Sommer is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at Stony Brook University (SUNY). She received her Master’s in sociology from Brook University and BA from Montclair State University. Her research interests include global political economy, environmental sociology, and development and health.

​Andreas Wiedemann is a PhD candidate in political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying political economy, comparative politics, and political behavior. His research explores how and in what ways families across advanced democracies borrow money to address the mismatch between their financial needs and social policies’ financial support.

​Alon Yakter is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor. His research interests include comparative political economy, social policy, identity politics, and political parties. His work examines how the economic and geographic contexts of ethnic, linguistic, and religious cleavages shape solidarity and welfare policy.