Team directory
Team directory
Marah Rigaud, ISPS Director's Fellow, 2026
Marah Rigaud is a sophomore from Long Island, New York, majoring in Political Science and African American Studies. Her academic interests center on law and public service, with a focus on race, governance, and public policy and how institutions shape access and equity.
Laila Robbins, Yale College, History
Laila Robbins is a junior at Yale studying History with a focus on pathologization. At Yale Law School, she currently researches discretionary sentencing enhancements for repeat drug offenders. Previously, Laila interned for Honorable Katherine B. Forrest (U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York). On campus, as Vice President of the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project, Laila mentors inmates at a Connecticut prison and facilitates re-entry initiatives in New Haven.
Yanitza Rodriguez, ISPS Graduate Policy Fellow, 2026
Yanitza Rodriguez is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Cellular & Molecular Physiology at Yale University, working in Dr. Rachel J. Perry’s lab. Her research examines how obesity-driven metabolic dysregulation affects ovarian function, fertility, and women’s reproductive health, with a particular interest in translating basic metabolic physiology into clinical and policy-relevant insights.
John Roemer, Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Stout Professor of Political Science and Economics
John Roemer is the Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Professor of Political Science and Economics. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, and has been a Fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation. His research concerns political economy, and distributive justice. He is currently teaching Political Competition and a Workshop in Political Economy. Publications include: Political Competition, Harvard University Press, 2001; Equality of Opportunity, Harvard University Press, 1998, Theories of Distributive Justice, Harvard University Press, 1996.
Doug Rogers, Professor of Anthropology and Faculty Director of the Program in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Douglas Rogers is Professor of Anthropology and Faculty Director of the Program in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at Yale University. His research and teaching interests in political and economic anthropology; natural resources (especially oil) and energy; corporations; the anthropology of religion and ethics; historical anthropology; and socialist societies and their postsocialist trajectories.
Jennifer Rosas, Dahl Scholar, 2025-2026
Jennifer (she/her) is a third-year student originally from Houston, Texas, pursuing a B.S. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology with a language certificate in Spanish. Her broader academic interests span biological studies, including mutated-protein analysis and chemical properties of molecular compounds. Furthermore, she began her research experience as a Herb-Scarf scholar the summer of 2025, where she first collaborated with Dr. Xi Chen. As a Dahl Scholar working under the mentorship of Dr.
Joseph Ross, Professor of Medicine (General Medicine) and Public Health (Health Policy and Management)
Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS, is a Professor of Medicine (General Medicine) and of Public Health (Health Policy and Management), a member of the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE) at the Yale-New Haven Hospital, and an Co-Director of the National Clinician Scholars program (NCSP) at Yale.
Nicolas Rudas, ISPS Graduate Policy Fellow, 2026
Nicolás earned his B.A. and M.A. in Sociology from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. His research examines the intersections of culture, violence, and democracy.
Taran Samarth, ISPS Graduate Policy Fellow, 2026
Taran is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science and a 2023-2024 RITM graduate fellow. Their research examines how federalism shapes American social movements, especially in local politics and the carceral state. As a policy fellow, they will study public attitudes towards, and movement discourses around, the expansion of surveillance technologies and local-federal data-sharing in law enforcement. They graduated from Penn State with degrees in sociology, philosophy, mathematics, and political science in 2023.