By Project
Search for our diverse faculty, researchers and staff by the individual projects they are working on.
National Analysis
Mariam Ashtiani is a graduate student researcher at the University of
California, Irvine. She conducts quantitative research for the Pathways
to Postsecondary Success project and looks at the multiple
postsecondary educational pathways of youth in poverty. Ashtiani is a
doctoral student in sociology at UC Irvine, and her interests lie at the
intersections of race and ethnicity, education, criminal justice and
immigration.
Cynthia Feliciano,
Ph.D., is associate professor of sociology and Chicano/Latino studies
at the University of California, Irvine. Her research on race and
ethnicity, immigration, and educational inequality has appeared in
journals such as Sociology of Education, Demography, and Social Forces.
She is the author of Unequal Origins: Immigrant Selection and the
Education of the Second Generation (2006). Feliciano earned her Ph.D.
in sociology from UCLA and has been a fellow of the Ford Foundation and
the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation.
Leticia Oseguera
is currently working as a research associate at Pennsylvania State
University’s Center for Higher Education. She is on leave from the
UC Irvine where she is an assistant professor in
the Department of Education. Her work focuses on access to and
retention in postsecondary education for low-income students and other
marginalized populations.
California Young Adult Survey
Caitlin Patler is a graduate student researcher on the California Young Adult Survey. Her primary responsibilities are to develop the survey's work/employment and demographics sections and conduct follow-up interviews with a sub-sample of immigrant youth. Patler is a doctoral student in sociology at UCLA. She has worked on several previous surveys of labor law violations in low-wage labor markets in Los Angeles. Drawing upon data from the CYAS, her dissertation will focus on the impact of immigration status on the integration of undocumented young adults.
William Estuardo Rosales is a graduate student researcher with PATHWAYS to Postsecondary Success, focusing on the development of the California Young Adult Survey. He is interested in measuring and examining the civic engagement outcomes of low-income youth. Rosales is a graduate student in sociology at UCLA.
Jeff Sacha is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Southern California. He is a member of the California Young Adult Survey team that will be interviewing 18 to 26 year olds in California about their access to higher education. His interests include the role that access to mentorship and extracurricular activity can play in facilitating educational outcomes. Sacha is an avid amateur boxer and helps run a youth boxing program in the Pico-Union neighborhood.
Claudia Solari is a graduate student researcher at UC/ACCORD, working to develop the California Young Adult Survey. Solari is currently finishing her Ph.D. in sociology at UCLA and starting a postdoctoral position at the University of North Carolina's Carolina Population Center in the fall. Her research interests center on social stratification and inequality, residential segregation, homelessness and survey design.
Veronica Terriquez, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the sociology department at the University of Southern California. She heads the California Young Adult Survey, which aims to document patterns of participation in postsecondary education, employment and civic engagement of 18 to 26 year olds. Terriquez’s research focuses on educational inequality, immigrant integration and organized labor. Her work is linked to education justice and immigrant rights organizing efforts in Los Angeles. Terriquez received her Ph.D. in sociology from UCLA.
Los Angeles Case Study
Maritza Del Razo is a public administrative analyst for PATHWAYS to Postsecondary Success. Del Razo assists on a variety of research projects, including examining college access for underrepresented groups, parent education programs, organized labor and education collaboration and access to postsecondary education in high-poverty communities. She received her master’s in education with an emphasis in student affairs from UCLA.
Josie Lee is an undergraduate student assistant at UC/ACCORD. She performs various administrative tasks and clerical duties, provides supplementary research online. She is currently entering her fourth year at UCLA as an English major and looks forward to teaching English abroad after she graduates.
Maria C. Malagon is a graduate student researcher for PATHWAYS to Postsecondary Success. She is currently a doctoral candidate specializing in race and ethnic studies at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Her research focuses on the educational trajectories of continuation high school Chicano students.
Lindsay Perez-Huber is a postdoctoral scholar for PATHWAYS to Postsecondary Success. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Education specializing in race and ethnic studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her dissertation project examines how discourses of racist nativism and patriarchy emerge in the educational trajectories of undocumented and U.S.-born Chicana college students. Her research interests are in race and ethnicity, immigration and critical race theory in education. She has published work on Latino students, particularly undocumented immigrant students.
Mike Rose, Ph.D., is a professor in the Social Research Methodology division at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. His research interests include literacy and the cognitive processes involved in writing, remediation in writing, teaching and learning, career and technical education and the cognitive dimension of work. He is the author of a number of books and articles on these topics including: Lives on the Boundary: The Struggles and Achievements of America's Educationally Underprepared; Possible Lives: The Promise of Public Education in America; The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker; An Open Language: Selected Writing on Literacy, Learning and Opportunity; and Why School?: Reclaiming Education for All of Us.
Yen Ling Shek is a graduate student researcher for PATHWAYS to Postsecondary Success. Her current work is on the Los Angeles case study, which focuses on low-income students of color at community colleges. Yen Ling is a UCLA doctoral student in higher education and organizational change.
Daniel G. Solorzano, Ph.D., is co-principal investigator of PATHWAYS to Postsecondary Success. He is director of UC/ACCORD All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity and a professor of social sciences and comparative education in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. He also has joint appointment as professor in the Cesar E. Chavez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies and an affiliated professor in the Department of Women’s Studies. His teaching and research interests include critical race and gender studies on the educational access, persistence and graduation of underrepresented minority undergraduate and graduate students in the United States.
Veronica Velez is a graduate student researcher at UC/ACCORD. Her research examines how race and immigration mediate the experiences of Latina/o families, especially parents. She has found a love for mapmaking and has been developing her skill in GIS for educational research. Velez has worked as a community organizer in Latino immigrant communities for more than 10 years.
Tara Watford, Ph.D., is the director of research for the PATHWAYS to Postsecondary Success project at UCLA. Her research pursues more robust notions of equity in higher education. Watford is particularly interested in investigating the disparities in educational opportunities by race, class and gender and the politics of institutional reform. Prior to joining the project, Watford was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California. Watford received her Ph.D. in education with a specialization in race and ethnic studies from UCLA.
Riverside Case Study
Christine Cerven is a postdoctoral
scholar at the UC San Diego. She works on the Riverside
case study, focusing on low-income single mothers and their pathways to and
within postsecondary education. She obtained her Ph.D. in sociology
specializing in social psychology and gender studies. Her research interests focus
on identity processes as they relate to psychological wellbeing and identity
development within women.
Amanda Datnow, Ph.D., is co-principal investigator
of the PATHWAYS to Postsecondary Success project. She is a professor and
director of Education Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Her
research focuses on educational reform, with particular interest in reforms
that increase opportunities for all students and improve the professional lives
of educators. She enjoys working with students and teaches courses to
undergraduates and graduate students at UC San Diego.
Sheila Keegan is an assistant project
coordinator for the PATHWAYS to Postsecondary Success project at the University
of California, San Diego. She performs a variety of administrative and clerical
duties and manages logistics for meetings and travel. Keegan is a UC San Diego
graduate.
Sana Meghani is an undergraduate research assistant for the Riverside case study
team. She is currently completing her undergraduate degree in Political Science
at the UC San Diego. Passionate about education
reform and the impact of state and national polices on the public education
system, Sana hopes to pursue a career in the field.
Jennifer Nations is a graduate student
researcher with the Riverside case study team. Nations assists in developing
theoretical conceptualization of the project, reviewing relevant literatures,
developing interview protocols, making contacts with the subject population,
and conducting interviews. She is a doctoral student in sociology at UC San Diego.
Kelly Nielsen is a graduate student
researcher with PATHWAYS to Postsecondary Success. His research focuses on the
educational pathways of low-income mothers and the supportive relationships
they form with individuals who help them attain postsecondary credentials. He
is a doctoral student in sociology at UC San Diego and is interested in critical
ethnography and the ways that culture, class, race, and gender intersect to
variously reproduce and transform unequal social structures.
Vicki Park, Ph.D., is the director of
research for the PATHWAYS to Postsecondary Success project at UC San Diego. She earned her doctorate in urban education policy with
an emphasis on leadership and administration from the University of Southern
California’s Rossier School of Education. Her research focuses on urban school
reform, policy implementation, and institutional change.
San Diego Case Study
Makeba Jones, Ph.D., is an associate project research scientist at the Center for Research on Educational Equity, Assessment and Teaching Excellence (CREATE) at UC San Diego. She is one of the principal investigators for the San Diego case study portion of the Pathways to Postsecondary Success project. She is currently examining the lives and pathways of 100 low-income youth in San Diego. She is a qualitative researcher with a background in urban school reform and policy, teacher professional development, student engagement and student voice.
Hugh "Bud" Mehan, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of sociology and director of UCSD’s Center for Research on Educational Equity, Access, and Teaching Excellence (CREATE). He has conducted research on the construction of educational inequalities and contributed to the construction of more equitable educational environments for low-income students of color.
Susan Yonezawa, Ph.D., is an associate project research scientist at UCSD’s Center for Research on Educational Equity, Assessment and Teaching Excellence (CREATE). She is the co-principal investigator of the San Diego Case Study. Her overall research focuses on equity and school reform with a special emphasis on low-income and minority students' perspectives and voice in school change efforts. She has published widely in various journals including the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Leadership, Theory into Practice, and the Journal of Educational Change.
Indicators
Rhoda Freelon is a graduate student researcher for the PATHWAYS to Postsecondary Success Indicators Project where she assists with the development of an indicator system that will use data to monitor the critical conditions for low-income youth’s successful transition to postsecondary education, employment, and civic and community engagement. Freelon is a doctoral student in urban schooling at UCLA. Her research interests include using quantitative research methods to investigate the intersection of race and class in educational access and equity as well as exploring the role of parent and community engagement in school reform efforts in urban communities.
John Kucsera is a postdoctoral scholar directing the Indicators Project, a study designed to inform various stakeholders on data that indicates the unequal access to and opportunities for postsecondary success—and later adulthood—for marginalized populations. Kucsera obtained a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Texas, Austin. His current research interests focus on racial prejudice, racial mindfulness, and motivation, interventions, and policy for social justice.
John Rogers, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and the director of UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA). He is also faculty co-director of UCLA’s Principal Leadership Institute. Rogers is an expert on learning conditions in California public schools and communities and for several years has authored the California Educational Opportunity Report, widely used by state lawmakers, civic and community organizations. Rogers also studies the role of public engagement in equity-focused school reform and civic renewal. He is the co-author of Learning Power: Organizing for Education and Justice (2006) and the co-editor of the forthcoming Public Engagement for Public Education: Revitalizing Democracy and Equalizing Schools (September 2010).
