Meet the New Cohort of Graduate Policy Fellows

The Institution for Social and Policy Studies is pleased to announce their new cohort of Policy Fellows. This year ISPS selected 12 highly successful fellows who will spend the next year working on research projects in areas as diverse as campaign finance reform, class-based affirmative action in higher education, racial residential integration, the effect of early childhood trauma on political ideology, and the impact of services such as Uber and Lyft on the taxicab markets. This year’s cohort also includes a former Peace Corps volunteer, a Rhodes Scholar, and a student who recently founded a mental health startup.

The Graduate Fellowship program started in 2012 with the aim of bringing together scholars across campus interested in pursuing policy-relevant research on domestic issues. Over the course of the program, ISPS Policy Fellows attend seminars and bi-weekly meetings; receive training in skills such as op-ed and policy memo writing, media appearances and blogging; and present their research and receive feedback from ISPS-affiliated faculty and other graduate fellows. At the end of the program, the fellows are expected to have completed a research project. Graduate Policy Fellows must be enrolled in as a Yale graduate or a PhD candidate in a professional school.

The following scholars will join the Graduate Policy Fellows program for the 2016-2017 academic year:

Mohit Agrawal is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics. Mohit is an applied microeconomist and uses structural techniques to study US healthcare, education, and politics.

Noriko Amano is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics. Her research focuses on inequality and in particular, explores the effect that different policies have on the well-being of individuals in the long run.

Kassandra Birchler is a Ph.D. student in the Political Science Department. Her research focuses on the intersection of political science and psychology. Her research explores the effect of early childhood trauma on political ideology.

Ofra Bloch is a doctorate candidate at the Law School, where she also completed her LL.M. degree in 2015. Embracing a historical perspective, her work explores questions of inequality and law.

Adam Chekroud is a Ph.D. student in Psychology. His research focuses on the use of big data and computational statistics to improve the way we diagnose and treat mental illness.

Sophie Jacobson is a Ph.D. student in Political Science focusing on the politics of inequality in the United States. Her research centers on American social policy, incorporating historical institutionalist and comparative political economy approaches.

Nichole Nelson is a Ph.D. student in History, studying 20th century American History, with a focus on post-WWII urban and suburban history. Her research will examine how small suburban communities that choose to intentionally racially integrate.

Nicholas Occhiuto is a doctoral student in Sociology. His research interests include economic sociology, sociology of markets, organizations, occupations and work.

Molly Offer-Westort is a doctoral student in Political Science. Her research is on quantitative methodology for social science research. Her substantive interests are in social identity and redistributive preferences.

Pedro A. Regalado is a Ph.D. student in American Studies. As an urban historian interested in structural inequality, his research focuses on the intersections of urban poverty, immigration, race, and policy.

William Schpero is a Ph.D. student in Health Policy and Management, with a concentration in Economics. His research is currently focused on examining the implications of health insurance design and market organization for health care costs and quality.

Conor Walsh is a Ph.D. student in Economics. His research interests lie at the intersection of macroeconomic geography and urban policy.