Team directory: B

Team directory: B

Kate Baldwin

Kate Baldwin, Associate Professor of Political Science

Kate Baldwin is the Peter Strauss Family assistant professor of political science. She studies the political economy of developing countries, with a regional focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Her current research projects analyze politics in weak states. In these contexts, she is interested in how community-level institutions – such as traditional leaders and NGOs – interact with the national state to affect development, democracy and conflict.

Jack Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment

Jack M. Balkin is Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School. He is the founder and director of Yale’s Information Society Project, an interdisciplinary center that studies law and new information technologies. He also directs the Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression, and the Knight Law and Media Program at Yale.

Alex Bavalsky

Alex Bavalsky, Dahl Scholar, 2022 - 2023

Alex is a sophomore from New York City intending to major in Ethics, Politics, & Economics. His research interests include international development, empirical flaws in democratic institutions, and peacebuilding. 

Steven Berry, Professor of Economics and Jeffrey Talpins Faculty Director of the Tobin Center for Economic Policy

Steven Berry is the David Swensen Professor of Economics and the inaugural Jeffrey Talpins Faculty Director of the Tobin Center for Economic Policy, specializing in the empirical analysis of markets in equilibrium. Berry is a winner of the Frisch Medal of the Econometric Society and is an elected fellow of that society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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Rebecca Boorstein, ISPS Graduate Policy Fellow 2024

Beck Boorstein is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History. They also previously earned their J.D. from The University of Chicago Law School. Their research interests include the history of the regulation of disability; labor history; and topics in administrative, health, and tort law. As an ISPS fellow, they will conduct research on the relationship between service worker unions and federal administrative agencies.

Ron Borzekowksi

Ron Borzekowski, Executive Director, Yale's Data-Intensive Social Science Center

Ron Borzekowski is the inaugural executive director of Yale’s Data-Intensive Social Science Center and the senior research scholar in the Economics Department and at the Institution for Social and Political Studies. Prior to Yale, Borzekowski was a director of economics at Amazon Web Services. During his time in public service, Borzekowski helped build and then lead the Office of Research at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

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Sean Brady, Dahl Scholar, 2023-2024

Sean Brady (he/they) from Nashville, Tennessee, is an Eli Whitney Scholar majoring in political science. Collaborating with Professor Joshua Kalla, Sean is running a survey experiment examining the persuasive and agenda setting powers of disruptive protests. Previously, Sean worked on various political campaigns nationwide, including as an outreach director for city council and senate campaigns, and as an organizer on the Clinton Presidential campaign.

Nikhe Braimah

Nikhe Braimah, ISPS Director's Fellow 2024

Nikhe Braimah (he/him) is a junior in Branford College majoring in history. Originally from the Bay Area, he is interested in building sustainable solutions to the housing crisis in America’s cities through housing policy, urban development, and homelessness prevention. Recently, Nikhe has worked with the New Haven Fair Rent Commission, the New Haven Homeless Advisory Commission, and the Housing and Health Equity Lab at the Yale School of Public Health.

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Ellie Burke, Dahl Scholar, 2023-2024

Ellie Burke (she/her) is a senior history major in Silliman College from Kansas City, Missouri. Her research interests include studying the role of art and culture in social movements. Her thesis explored the impacts of the South African musical Sarafina! on anti-apartheid protest in the United States with advisor Professor Daniel Magaziner. As a Dahl Scholar, Ellie examined American foreign policy toward the South African apartheid regime from the late 1970s to the late 1990s.

Susan Busch

Susan Busch, Professor of Public Health (Health Policy)

Professor Busch is a Professor of Public Health (Health Policy) and former chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Yale School of Public Health. Professor Busch’s research examines the effects of policies and regulations on health care cost and quality. Most of her work focuses on behavioral health. Professor Busch’s work has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, an S.M.