Abramsky is a Lecturer in the University Writing Program at UC
Davis. Much of his work over the past decade has centered on
America’s criminal justice system, and he also writes on
political goings-on and cultural trends.
Professor Beatty is an Associate Professor in the Department of
Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of
California, Davis. His research relates to the empirical
analysis of consumption behavior, in particular as it relates to
health outcomes. Professor Beatty’s research has tended to focus
on food consumption and the demand for nutrition and health, at
both the household and aggregate levels.
Nicole Woolsey Biggart joined the Graduate School of Management
in 1981 as one of the School’s first faculty members. On June 1,
2010, she assumed the Chevron Chair in Energy Efficiency, which
directs the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center. She served as dean
of the Graduate School of Management from July 1, 2003, to June
30, 2009. She held the Jerome J. and Elsie Suran Chair in
Technology Management from 2002 to June 2010.
Marianne Bitler is a Professor in the Department of Economics at
the University of California, Davis; a Research Associate at the
National Bureau of Economic Research; and a Research Fellow at
IZA. She received her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in 1998. Her research focuses on the effects of the US
social safety net on poverty, income, human capital, and health;
economics of the family; economics of education; and health
economics.
Noli Brazil received his doctorate in Demography from the
University of California Berkeley in 2013, and is an Assistant
Professor in the Department of Human Ecology. His research and
teaching interests focus on the causes and consequences of
neighborhood inequality. Current research projects include
examining the interactions between neighborhoods and schools,
understanding the determinants of residential mobility and
attainment during young adulthood, and Hispanic US internal
migration.
A. Colin Cameron received his degree in Economics from Stanford
University in 1988. His research specialty is econometric theory
for cross-section data, especially count data, and applications
to labor economics and health economics data.
1124 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
David Campbell, a political scientist, is associate dean for
social/human sciences in the College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences, University of California, Davis. He was
appointed associate dean in October 2014.
Campbell was raised in Tennessee and New Jersey, and received a
bachelor’s degree (1978) in political science from Westminster
College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. He holds a master’s
degree from The Ohio State University (1980) and a doctoral
degree from the University of Oregon (1984), both also in
political science.
Dr. Choe received his doctoral degree in Psychology with a
developmental emphasis from the University of Michigan in 2012.
His research examines the development of self-regulation,
executive functions, and conduct problems throughout childhood,
as well as family stressors, such as harsh parenting and maternal
depression, that contribute to the intergenerational transmission
of antisocial behavior, mental illness, and poverty.
Gregory Clark received his degree in Economics from Harvard
University in 1985. His main current research, detailed in his
new book, The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of
Social Mobility, uses the information content of surnames to
estimate the rate and nature of inter-generational social
mobility in a variety of societies, including the USA.
1137 Social Sciences and Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Rand Conger received his degree in Sociology from the University
of Washington in 1976. His research focuses on social and
economic stress; life course development; family interaction
processes; and family research methods.
Carolyn Dewa, M.P.H., Ph.D. joined faculty for the UC Davis
Department of Psychiatry in Fall 2015 and is the Director for the
Outcomes and Evaluations Core of the Behavioral Health Center of
Excellence at UC Davis.
Katherine Eriksson is a specialist in applied microeconomics
whose interests encompass economic history, labor economics, and
development economics. She is a member of the UC Davis Graduate
Placement Committee (2015–16). She is a member of the American
Economic Association, the Cliometric Society, and the Economic
History Association.
Ryan Finnigan received his doctorate from Duke University in
2013, and is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department
at UC Davis. His research focuses on structural changes in
metropolitan housing and labor markets, and their implications
for racial/ethnic inequalities in work and homeownership.
Kevin Gee received his doctorate from Harvard University. His
previous position was as a lecturer at the Taubman Center for
Public Policy at Brown University. His research interests focus
on the role that children’s health plays in their ability to
learn. He also brings strong expertise in large-scale program
evaluation.
Gail Goodman received her degree in Developmental Psychology from
UCLA in 1977. Her areas of research expertise include welfare
recipients, foster care, and the intergenerational transmission
of attachment insecurity.
Luis Eduardo Guarnizo is Professor of Sociology and Community and
Regional Development at the Department of Human Ecology,
University of California, Davis. His research examines the
determinants, dynamics, and theoretical and practical effects of
mass human mobility across national borders. His research
specifically focuses on migrants’ mode of socioeconomic
incorporation and political participation, migration and
citizenship, and migration and socioeconomic change and
inequality at the local, national, transnational, and global
scales.
Dr. Falbe’s research focuses on studying programmatic, policy,
and environmental interventions to prevent chronic disease and
reduce health disparities. Dr. Falbe led an evaluation of the
nation’s first soda tax in Berkeley, California. Her research has
also examined primary care nutrition and physical activity
interventions for youth, healthy retail programs, and
multi-sector community interventions to prevent obesity. Dr.
Falbe received a dual doctorate in Nutrition and Epidemiology in
2013 from Harvard University.
Dr. Guyer’s research focuses on the behavioral and neural
mechanisms that may underlie the way that adolescents think and
feel. One overarching question throughout her research is how
does attentional focus modulate the brain circuitry involved in
emotional responding?
Drew Halfmann’s research and teaching focuses on the politics of
health and social policy, with an emphasis on the role of
political institutions. His first book was on the
politics of abortion in the United States, Britain and
Canada. His next book will examine the African-American
struggle for health equality from Reconstruction to Obamacare.
Erin Hamilton received her degree in Sociology from the
University of Texas, Austin in 2009. Her current research
investigates the social and demographic sources of international
migration from Mexico to the United States.
2244 Social Sciences and Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Angela Harris received her degree from the University of Chicago
Law School in 1986. Her research focuses on critical legal
theory, examining how law can reinforce and challenge
subordination on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, class, and
other dimensions of power and identity.
Cassandra Hart is associate professor of education policy. She
evaluates the effects of school, state and national education
programs, policies, and practices on overall student achievement,
and on the equality of student outcomes. Hart’s recent work
has focused on school choice programs, school accountability
policies, early childhood education policies, and effects on
students of exposure to demographically similar teachers.
She is also interested in the effects of virtual schooling on
student outcomes, both in K-12 and post-secondary settings.
Paul Hastings received his degree from the University of Toronto.
His research focuses on the impact of stressors on child and
adolescent well-being, and the effects of poverty on
physiological reactivity, regulation and development of mental
and physical health problems.
Dr. Leah Hibel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of
Human Ecology. She received her degree in Biobehavioral Health
from Penn State University in 2009. Dr. Hibel’s research focuses
on maternal and child health particularly in the context of
family stress.
Dr. Hoch’s experience is in health services research related to
cancer, mental health, and other health issues affecting poor and
vulnerable populations. He is an award winning teacher who has
taught Health Economics and Economic Evaluation classes in the
United States and internationally. Dr Hoch pursues research
making health economics more useful to decision makers.
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political
Science at UC Davis. My research focuses on income inequality and
redistributive politics in the United States, the statistics of
causal inference, and survey experimentation. My current
empirical research looks at the political ramifications of
Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) on policy preferences, candidate
support and electoral outcomes.
Camelia Hostinar is a developmental psychologist who studies how
the social environment shapes child and adolescent health,
with a focus on the activity of the stress-response and immune
systems. She is probing the pathways linking poverty to
later risk for disease and investigating protective
psychosocial processes such as supportive
relationships that could help reduce this risk.
CMB Office: 202 Cousteau Place, Room 254
Young Hall Office: One Shields Ave., Room 174F
Mary Jackman received her degree in Sociology from the University
of Wisconsin, Madison in 1972. Her research focuses on political
sociology and social inequality.
2245 Social Sciences and Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Kevin Johnson received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1983.
His research interests include immigration law and policy,
refugee law, civil rights, and the Critical Race and Latina/o
theories.
Dr. Ko looks at how policy, healthcare, and our social structure
are interconnected, and their impacts on disadvantaged
communities. She has conducted research on a variety of topics,
including the healthcare safety net, Medicaid, long-term care,
access to healthcare for minority populations, diversity in
medical education, and the healthcare workforce.
Michal Kurlaender’s work focuses on education policy and
evaluation, particularly practices that address existing
racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequality at various stages of
the educational attainment process.
J. Paul Leigh received his degree in Economics from the
University of Wisconsin, Madison. His fields of expertise are
health and labor economics as well as econometrics.
Peter Lindert’s current research focuses on the causes and
effects of modern fiscal redistribution and the history of
inequality, political voice and economic growth.
Jonathan K. London received his degree in Environmental Science
Policy and Management from UC Berkeley in 2011. His research
addresses conflicts and collaboration in natural resource and
environmental issues, specifically on marginalized rural
communities and environmental justice issues in the Sierra Nevada
and the Central Valley.
Philip Martin received his degree from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison in 1975. His research focuses on: immigration,
farm labor, and economic development.
2101 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Joy Melnikow, MD, MPH is the Director of the Center for
Healthcare Policy and Research and Professor of Family and
Community Medicine at the University of California, Davis. She
serves on the executive committee for the UC Davis Comprehensive
Cancer Center, and is a member of the US Preventive Services Task
Force. She received her MD from UC San Francisco and her MPH in
epidemiology from UC Berkeley.
Deb Niemeier received her degree in Civil and Environmental
Engineering from the University of Washington in 1994. Her
research focuses on the impact of low income families’ access to
transport on jobs, healthcare, and schools.
Marianne Page is a Professor of Economics and Director of the
Center for Poverty Research at UC Davis. She has authored
numerous scholarly articles focusing on low-income
families. A labor economist, she is an expert on
intergenerational mobility and equality of opportunity in the
United States. She has also worked on various issues
related to the U.S. safety net, education, and gender. Her
research has appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Economics,
the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, and
the Journal of Labor Economics.
1138 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Mike Palazzolo received his degree in Marketing from the
University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in 2016. His
research examines various intertemporal trade-offs, ranging from
consumer search to financial decision making.
Caitlin Patler is Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC
Davis. Dr. Patler’s research explores citizenship and
legal status as axes of stratification that shape
opportunities for mobility. She is currently conducting
longitudinal mixed-methods research on the impacts of
long-term immigration detention and on the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Dr. Patler received her
Ph.D.
Giovanni Peri received his degree in Economics from UC Berkeley
in 1998. His research focuses on the determinants of
international migrations and their impact on labor markets,
productivity, and investments.
1140 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Brendan Price is an Assistant Professor of Economics at UC Davis.
Price completed his PhD in Economics at MIT, where he specialized
in labor economics and public finance. His research explores the
labor market impacts of technology and trade, the consequences of
being laid off, and how public policies can help workers, their
families, and their communities recover from job loss. In
published and ongoing work, he is analyzing how competition from
Chinese imports has affected US workers and firms.
Lisa Pruitt’s areas of research include legal and policy
implications of income inequality along the rural-urban continuum
and legal aspects of declining mobility, with an emphasis on
diminishing access to higher education.
Gloria M. Rodriguez (Ph.D., Stanford University) is an Associate
Professor at the University of California, Davis School of
Education. Her research focuses on educational leadership and
resource allocation from a critical, social justice perspective.
She presently serves as the principal investigator for the
Leadership for Real Impact (LRI) Project, which employs a
case-study approach to investigate the intersections of
leadership and resource allocation practices that support the
academic success and well-being of low-income students of color
in K-12 and Community College settings.
