2016 - 2017 Academic Year Fellows
Natalie Brezack
Natalie graduated from the Department of Psychology in June 2022. She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2013 with a B.S. in Psychology. For her honors thesis, Natalie researched individual differences in preschooler’s preference for and processing of infant-directed action under the supervision of Dr. Dare Baldwin.
Natalie’s research interests involve social and cognitive development of children (perspective-taking, helping, etc.) and the ways in which caregiver-child interactions impact learning.
Neil Cholli
Neil is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility at the Harris School of Public Policy. In July 2023, he will join Cornell University’s Department of Economics as a Klarman Fellow. Neil graduated from the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics in December 2022 as an IES fellow and NSF graduate research fellow. He received his B.A. in Mathematical Economics and Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania in 2016.
Neil is a labor and public economist who leverages applied microeconomic methods guided by theory to understand the mechanisms of social mobility and evaluate policies aimed at promoting it. His dissertation examined how welfare-to-work reforms affected the educational trajectories of youth. In ongoing work, Neil is assessing the long-term impacts of two-generation approaches that simultaneously invest in the human capital of disadvantaged children and parents.
Bridgette Davis
Bridgette graduated from the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice in 2022. Prior to earning her master’s degree from Crown, Davis worked in charter and traditional public schools in Atlanta and Chicago for eleven years. She taught both middle school and high school, served as a Dean of Instruction for the Noble Network of Charter Schools, worked as a program director for both Teach For America and One Goal, and managed a school-based college counseling team aimed at attaching high school graduates to four-year college and other meaningful post-secondary opportunities.
Bridgette’s research interests include urban education, transitions to adulthood, homelessness, post-secondary education organizations, community colleges, and policy advocacy in the education sector. Davis plans to study the emerging field of diverse organizations seeking to attach “disconnected” or “opportunity” youth to school and/or work.
Karlyn Gorski
Karlyn graduated from the Department of Sociology in July 2022. She received her undergraduate degree in public policy, also from the University of Chicago, in 2014.
Karlyn’s research focuses on adolescents in Chicago Public Schools (CPS). In particular, she is especially interested in how CPS students understand (in)equality, segregation, and opportunity, both within and beyond the CPS system.
Sireen Irsheid
Sireen Irsheid is a postdoctoral fellow at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. Sireen received her BA in Developmental Psychology from DePaul University, her Masters in Social Work from Columbia University, and her PhD from the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago. As a critical race scholar, her research and practice focus on the complex interplay between race, education, mental health, and structural violence. Specifically, her work takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine the multidimensional aspects of systemic racism and place-based contextual processes that shape the circumstances of students who are disproportionately impacted by education inequities. Sireen is also a licensed clinical social worker and holds certificates in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Her extensive clinical practice experience working as a school social worker with students who are impacted by legacies of colonialism and structural racism has reinforced her commitment to challenge prevailing systemic mechanisms that perpetuate mental health and education inequities. As part of the RWJF network and a Health Policy Research Scholar Alumni, Sireen leverages her practice experience and scholarship to build viable education and health policy solutions with the goal to disrupt mechanisms of inequity for Black and Brown young people. Her commitment to anti-oppressive research and practice extend to her teaching that encourages the use of self-reflexivity, co-participation in knowledge production, and to develop an orientation to our professional and personal lives to foster an anti-racist future across multiple practice domains.
Natalie Jerkins Dowling
Natalie graduated from the Department of Comparative Human Development in 2022. Natalie also obtained a BA in linguistics from the University of Chicago in 2010.
Natalie’s research focuses on early childhood education, specifically first language acquisition and gateways to literacy. She is interested in how early oral language skills typically develop, and how early morphological, syntactic, and discourse abilities may be encouraged by caregivers and educators. Her work considers the social and academic effects of extreme differences in early language development for students with disabilities directly influencing communication and access to oral classrooms, such as deafness and autism.
Helen Lee
Helen graduated from the Department of Comparative Human Development in 2022. Prior to entering her doctoral program, she worked as a middle school teacher, community organizer, and policy analyst. She also has experience working in nonprofits serving youth, parents, and communities. Helen holds a B.A. in English and Political Science and a M.A. in Educational Policy and Leadership from the University of Michigan.
Helen is broadly interested in developing and sustaining humanizing school systems and out-of-school spaces for youth. Her current research focuses on mental health, teacher development and retention, and Asian Americans.
Valerie Michelman
Valerie graduated from the Harris School of Public Policy in 2022. She also received her undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Chicago in 2013.
Valerie works in the fields of labor and public economics with a focus on the economics of education, gender, and inequality. Current work includes papers on the design of teacher pay schedules and the role of old boys clubs in the returns to elite universities.
Nancy Pantoja
Nancy graduated from the Department of Psychology in June 2022. She also received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Chicago in 2013. She completed an honors thesis examining the effects of private speech and agency on children’s memory. After graduating, she taught first graders in Chicago through Teach For America.
Nancy is interested in exploring how social interactions can affect children’s motivation and academic outcomes. She is interested in understanding how manipulating these interactions affects children’s math learning and performance, and how these interactions differ in contexts of socioeconomic status.
Madeleine Oswald
Madeleine is a doctoral student in the Developmental Psychology program working with Dr. Susan Levine and Dr. Susan Goldin-Meadow. She completed her B.A. at Wesleyan University in 2014 with a double major in Psychology and Theatre. Previously, Madeleine worked for Dr. Anna Shusterman’s Cognitive Development Lab at Wesleyan University and Dr. Jill Lany’s Infant Studies Lab at the University of Notre Dame.
Hilary Tackie
Hilary graduated from the Department of Comparative Human Development in 2022. She received her undergraduate degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and Africana Studies from Brown University in 2013. Before beginning her graduate work at U of C, Hilary worked as a Research Assistant at Education Trust, analyzing data of K-12 Students to identify patterns of inequity in educational opportunity and achievement.
Hilary’s current research interests broadly involve examining the educational experiences of students of color and the sources of their sense of belonging in their schools and communities. More specifically, Hilary has recently completed a survey of 500 middle school-aged students in order to explore the relationship between students’ future goals/feelings of future support and their emotional engagement in school. For the past two years, she has also been working on Professor Keels’ Trauma Responsive Educational Practices Project, presenting information to and hosting professional development for teachers who interact with traumatized youth.