PhD Student Directory

Grace Newton

Doctoral Student
Woman in a white shirt with black skirt smiling in front of flowers

gnewton@uchicago.edu

Areas of Expertise
Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice
Asian Americans
Child Welfare and Child Protection
Child Welfare System
China
Family
Foster Care
Human Rights
Immigration
Intersectionality
Parenting and Families
Qualitative Research Methods
Race, Ethnicity, and Culture

Dennis Rivera-Cash

Doctoral Student

driveracash@uchicago.edu

Areas of Expertise
Health Disparities
Intervention Programs
LGBTQIA+
Prevention
Public Health
Qualitative Research Methods
Risk and resilience
Sexual Minorities

Clarice J. Robinson

Doctoral Student
Woman in red jack with blue red and white skirt standing with hands folder leaning against a building smiling

cjrobinson@uchicago.edu

Areas of Expertise
African Americans
Decarceration
Mass Incarceration
Mental Health
Public Health
Qualitative Research Methods
Reentry
Social Work
Transformative Justice
Trauma Informed Research
Violence and Trauma
Violence Prevention

Yunuen Rodriguez, MA,MSW

Doctoral Student
woman in a white shirt with salmon colored vest sitting with hands crossed with a pleasant expression

ikiltezi@uchicago.edu

Areas of Expertise
Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice
Centering the Margins of Society
Children and Adolescents
Community
Global Social Work
Government and Policy
Health Disparities
Human Development
Race, Ethnicity, and Culture

Elizabeth Sanchez

Doctoral Student
Woman in pink sweater with pink lipstick and brown hair smiling

elizabeths1@uchicago.edu

Areas of Expertise
Critical Chicana Feminist Methods and Epistemology
Culturally-sensitive Mental Health Care
Immigration
Latine Mental Health
Latino-Americans
Parenting and Families
Undocumented Immigrant Family Well-being

Sheila Shankar, LSW

Doctoral Student
woman with curly hair in black smiling

sheilashankar@uchicago.edu

Areas of Expertise
Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice
Asian Americans
Autoethnography
Criminal Legal Change
Culturally-sensitive Mental Health Care
Gender
Gender-based and Family Violence
Intersectionality
LGBTQIA+
Mental Health
Parenting and Families
Politicized Healing & Healing Justice
Professional culture, training and apprenticeship
Qualitative Research Methods
Social problems and social policy
Transformative Justice
Trauma-informed Clinical Practice
Violence and Trauma
Women with incarceration experiences

Ye Jin Sohn

Doctoral Student
Woman in blue shirt sitting with black skirt smiling

sohn@uchicago.edu

Areas of Expertise
Gender
Intersectionality
Mental Health
Race, Ethnicity, and Culture
Trauma-informed Clinical Practice
Violence and Trauma

Seongbo Son

Doctoral Student
Male in blue suit with tie and short black hair cut

seongboson@uchicago.edu

Areas of Expertise
Aging
Community
Housing
Low-income Families
Poverty and Welfare Policy
Urban Inequality

Brianna Suslovic

Doctoral Student
Woman with curly hair, glasses and orange and white striped shirt smiling in front of blue curtains

bsuslovic@uchicago.edu

Areas of Expertise
Administrative Burden
Complex institutions
Criminal Legal Change
Criminal Legal Policy
Decarceration
Frontline Policy Implementation
Health Disparities
Intersectionality
Mass Incarceration
Mental Health
Policy Implementation
Poverty and Welfare Policy
Program Evaluation
Public Health
Public Policy
Qualitative Research Methods
Race, Ethnicity, and Culture
Reentry
Research and Evaluation Methodology
Risk and resilience
Social problems and social policy
Social Welfare
Social Work
Street Level Bureaucracy
Transformative Justice

Resha T. Swanson-Varner

Doctoral Student
Outline of maroon phoenix

reshas@uchicago.edu

Areas of Expertise
Community Organizing and Development
Health
Poverty and Income
Race, Ethnicity, and Culture
Work and Family Policies

Jiebiao Wang

Doctoral Student
man standing in university of chicago t-shirt with glasses outdoors

jiebiaow@uchicago.edu

Areas of Expertise
Advanced Quantitative Methods
Causal Inference
Children and Adolescents
China
Disability
Employment
Health
Health Disparities
Large-scale Administrative Datasets
Machine Learning
Research and Evaluation Methodology

Astrid Watkins

Doctoral Student
woman in a brown blazer with green top standing against a grey wall

bawatkins@uchicago.edu

Areas of Expertise
Abolition
Arts-Based Methods
Community-Engaged Methods
Critical History and Historiography
Eco-Social Work
Gender, Race, and Class
Land Justice Movements
Place-Based Methods
Race, Indigeneity, and Diaspora Studies
Social Work Pedagogy

Soo Young Lee

Doctoral Student
Woman, standing, brown and grey top, smiling , black hair, outdoors

sooyoungl@uchicago.edu

Office Location: WSSC 262/264

Areas of Expertise
Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice
Asian Americans
Coalition Building
Community Organizing and Development
Gender
Intersectionality
Mental Health
Qualitative Research Methods
Race, Ethnicity, and Culture