Ellen Whitehead is a third- year graduate student in the Sociology department at Rice University.  She is a graduate student affiliate with the  Program for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, and Culture, housed within Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.  Her areas of interest include the private and public safety nets and neighborhood-level poverty, with a broader focus on understanding how racial inequalities are transmitted across generations.  Ellen’s current projects examine resource sharing between extended kin, the implications of this kin support, and whether benefits vary between racial groups.  She seeks to contribute to our understanding of how families matter to housing and neighborhood outcomes.  Ellen holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Arizona.