Graduate Student

Abby Slovick

Abby Slovick (she/her) is a doctoral student in the Policy, Politics, and Leadership cluster in the Graduate School of Education. Her research interests encompass a variety of topics including technology in education, district governance, and democratic education.

Abby’s current research projects include tracing Transitional Kindergarten (TK) growth and implementation in California; observing how San Francisco Bay Area school boards construct resources and the evidence they employ to justify those resources; and understanding how students navigated preparing for the virtual...

Jeremy Martin

Jeremy’s research explores the role of venture philanthropy in K-12 education. More specifically, he is interested in the role of philanthropic organizations that are founded by or led by people of color. Using political science as a disciplinary framework, his work explores the relationship between institutions and ideologies, investigates elite advocacy in K-12 education settings, and probes the role of Black and Latino/a educational entrepreneurs.

His past research projects include a review of parent education program implementation in Los Angeles; a review of culturally...

Quennie Dong

Quennie Dong is a first-year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at UC Berkeley. Quennie graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Social Behavior and minor in Education. She then attended Florida International University and received her EdS in School Psychology. During her time in south Florida, she worked with diverse students and families as a school psychologist intern in Broward County Public Schools.

Her current research interests relate to supporting and advocating for marginalized youth, immigrant families...

Samuel Santos Jr.

Samuel Santos Jr. [he/him/his], is a first year doctoral student in UC Berkeley’s educational doctorate, Leaders for Equity and Democracy (LEAD). He is a student affairs practitioner with more than 15 years of leadership experience in post-secondary educational settings. Passionate about equity, access, and the joy of supporting adult learners, Samuel has held a wide array of leadership roles in student services spanning both two and four year colleges. He currently works in the Office of the Dean of Students at the University of California, Berkeley as Assistant Vice Chancellor for...

Monica Thomas

Monica Thomas is a first-year doctoral student in Cohort 1 of the Leadership for Equity and Democracy (LEAD) program in the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education. Her research interests include school improvement and central office reform and the role local politics and community engagement play in impacting effective policy implementation.

Monica has been a long time leader in the Oakland Unified School District, serving as the founding principal of Greenleaf TK-8 as well as a Network Superintendent, where she supervised seventeen schools primarily in East Oakland....

Viviane Chang

Viviane is currently a doctoral student in School Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley working under the supervision of Dr. Elliot Turiel. She is also a nationally certified school psychologist and a registered psychological assistant. Her decision to enter school psychology started off from a simple thought that she wanted to make schools a safe harbor for children where they feel loved and welcomed, are supported to learn the skills needed to make healthy choices for themselves, to better cope with life challenges, and to care for one another’s well­-being.

Viviane...

Meg Everett

Meg Everett is a doctoral student in the Learning Sciences and Human Development cluster with a Designated Emphasis in New Media. Her research interests include student literacy practices, participatory technologies, computer-mediated learning and communication, and the intersection of schooling and social media. As a Regent’s Fellow at UC Berkeley under the mentorship of Professor Glynda Hull, she has worked as a fieldwork coordinator for ED140 (The Art of Making Meaning: Educational Perspectives on Literacy and Learning in a Global World) and currently sits on the Student...

Julia Zhu

Julia Zhu is a doctoral candidate in the Critical Studies of Race, Class, and Gender program at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. Her work explores the ways that college students in China perceive social class and meritocracy, and how social economic and educational changes have shaped their perceptions of social inequality and inequity.

Julia was born and raised in China. Prior to studying at Berkeley, she has obtained BA in Early Childhood Education and MA in Sociology of Education at Beijing Normal University. And she has studied at Hong Kong Education University and...

Xinyu (Celia) Wei

Xinyu (Celia) Wei is a first-year student in the Learning Sciences and Human Development program at the Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley. As an international scholar from China, Xinyu desires to help students celebrate productive struggles, leverage everyday experiences, and develop intellectual and sociocritical thinking skills to tackle worldwide equity barriers within STEM education. Her mission guides her as an emergent researcher who works with classroom teachers and students to design and implement meaningful and culturally grounded mathematics and science curriculum...

Jacqueline Anton

Jacqueline Anton is a student in the Joint Doctoral Program in Special Education. Her research addresses embodied mathematics interventions for students with moderate/ extensive support needs. She is also interested in inclusive mathematics pedagogy and teacher education. Her work is inspired by her pervious experience as both a general and special education Math teacher.

Specializations and Interests

Mathematics Education, Teacher Education, Inclusive Pedagogy, Disability Studies