Camilla Alvarez

Structural Racism as an Environmental Justice Issue: A Multilevel Analysis of the State Racism Index and Estimated Cancer Risk from Air Toxics

Camila H. Alvarez, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Merced. Dr. Alvarez received her PhD and MA in Sociology from the University of Oregon and her B.A.s in Sociology and Mathematics from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She specializes in air pollution, social inequalities, environmental justice, and quantitative methodology. Her research focuses on how environmental problems manifest as a result of social and systematic inequities.

Kathryn Norton-Smith

Structural Racism as an Environmental Justice Issue: A Multilevel Analysis of the State Racism Index and Estimated Cancer Risk from Air Toxics

Kathryn Norton-Smith is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at the University of Oregon. Her research focuses on race and ethnicity, sociology of health and illness, and environmental sociology. Kathryn's work has been published in Socius and Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Eli Michaels

Area-level racial prejudice and health: a systematic review

Eli Michaels, MPH is a health equity researcher and PhD candidate in epidemiology at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Her research is broadly focused on measuring racism and estimating its effects on racial health inequities in the United States. She is particularly interested in using big data to measure area-level racial prejudice and examining biopsychosocial pathways to health. Eli draws on theory from across the social sciences to inform the questions she asks, the methods she uses, and the interpretation and communication of her research findings. Prior to starting her PhD, Eli completed her BA in Sociology and Feminist & Gender Studies at Colorado College and her MPH in Health & Social Behavior at UC Berkeley. When she’s not debugging R code, Eli enjoys rock climbing, running, and cooking.

Courtnee Melton-Fant

What does economic development have to do with racial health and socioeconomic inequities? Mapping property tax abatements in Memphis, TN

Courtnee Melton-Fant, PhD, MS, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Health Systems Management and Policy. Her research interests include state- and local-level public policy, health outcomes, and racial health inequities. She is particularly interested in how broad-based social and economic public policies can be used to eliminate health inequities.

Paige Nong

Patient Reported Experiences of Discrimination in the US Healthcare System

Paige Nong is a PhD student in Health Services Organization and Policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Her work focuses on racial health inequity and health information technologies in the US healthcare system.

Aunrika Tucker-Shabazz

Incest as Structural Racism: Breaking the Sound Barrier in the Sociology of Sexuality

AunRika is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the University of Michigan Sociology department. AunRika uses her training as an aerospace engineer and psychologist to aid social theorists in redefining social forces as contradictory and collaborative, and the subject as ecologically situated. Her dissertation research agenda investigates the cultural formations and representations of incestuous sexuality in European and African diasporic media and law. Her interests include philanthropy, gender and sexuality, spatial equity, kinship and knowledge production.

Mónica Gutierrez

La Fortaleza Seguir Luchando: The Strength to Keep Fighting

Mónica Gutiérrez is a first-generation college student and in the doctoral program in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University (ASU). She is a Doctoral Fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar Program and an Affiliated Researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She received her Bachelor of Arts from San Francisco State University and a Master of Social Work degree from ASU with a concentration in planning, administration, and community practice.

Her research focuses on structural and institutional racism and how this affects the inequitable distribution of power, land, and other resources for racial and ethnic minorities. Her dissertation will explore the interaction of politics and placemaking for Latinas/os in South Phoenix.

Her research experience is grounded in collaborating with various stakeholders utilizing community voices to ask and answer questions of interest. She is inspired by her years of work experience in various sectors of service delivery including child welfare, Veteran’s health, criminal justice, and health promotion.

Connor Martz

Racial Residential Segregation Shapes Exposure to Subjective Neighborhood Disorder and Subsequent Risk of Depression in the Black Women’s Experiences Living with Lupus (BeWELL) Study

I am a population health scientist whose research examines social, contextual, and structural mechanisms of health inequity exist across place, population, and over the life-course, with a particular focus on structural racism as a fundamental cause of health. My approach to research is informed through an interdisciplinary lens and use of developmental (latent variable) methods to understand population health inequities. I am currently completing my NIH F31-funded dissertation research on biopsychosocial mechanisms of disease progression among Black women with lupus, and am applying for postdoctoral research fellowships in public and population health.

Tyler Jimenéz

Racial Prejudice Predicts Police Militarization

Tyler Jimenez (Nambé Pueblo) is a PhD candidate in social/personality psychology at the University of Missouri and a Health Policy Research Scholar with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. His research focuses on racial inequality, particularly regarding health and policing.

Richard Smith

Acting Black vs. Acting White: The Political Consequences of Racial Norm Violations

My name is Richard Smith II and I am a PhD Candidate in the Psychology Department at the University of Michigan. My program of research largely examines situations where people question or threaten the racial identity of Black people as well as the psychological, interpersonal, and behavioral consequences associated with these experiences. In addition, I examine how and when Black people choose to strategically express or downplay their membership within their social group across differing contexts. I investigate these topics through the perspective of the target and the perpetrator by connecting literature on social rejection, coping, identity denial, codeswitching, and discrimination, while hoping to better understand and improve upon the psychological and physical well-being of those involved.

Ketlyne Sol

Loneliness Moderates the Relationship Between Reading Ability and Cognition in Older Adults

Dr. Sol is a clinical psychologist with a clinical training emphasis in rehabilitation psychology, which focuses on the holistic assessment and treatment of individuals with chronic/progressive disabling illness and acquired/traumatic physical disability. Trained within a scientist-practitioner framework, Dr. Sol is interested in evaluating psychosocial factors, contextual factors such as sociocultural and physical environment, and processes to help improve coping and quality of life of individuals with physical disabilities. Due to the disproportionate amounts of older adult ethnic minorities who develop Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (ADRD), she is further leveraging her clinical training and research experiences to additionally develop her skill and expertise in conducting research in disparities in ADRD to inform culturally relevant points of intervention and policy changes to reduce this disparity in aging.

Brenae Smith

A Systematic Review of Education Research on Social, Economic, and Intergenerational Mobility

Brenae Smith is a Data Project Assistant at the University of Michigan’s Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. Brenae's background is in higher education administration and she has previously worked in student affairs over the past several years. Her primary research interests lie in education policy, college access and success, and higher education affordability. She holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Michigan and an MS in Education from the University of Pennsylvania.

Amber Bryant

A Systematic Review of Education Research on Social, Economic, and Intergenerational Mobility

Amber Bryant, Ph.D. is a Detroit-native and Michigan alum. She currently works as a project manager at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the Institute of Social Research (ISR), University of Michigan, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She is the manager for the Partnership for Expanding Education Research in STEM (PEERS) Data Hub. Additionally, Amber works as the research assistant on the Taxonomy of Black History Month Programming in Public Libraries grant funded by The Black Caucus of the American Libraries Association. Before joining the team at ICPSR, Amber completed her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. At UNCC, her doctorate program focused on urban education and literacy. She also completed a graduate certificate in urban management and policy focused on emergency management. Prior to completing her Ph.D., Amber worked as a high school English teacher in Mooresville, North Carolina. Currently, her research focuses on economics, education, and equitable resources for children living in poverty. Her focus is on community engagement and empowerment.

View some of the poster presentations below

Learn More About the Presenters

Join us from at the Symposium from 5 PM -6:30 PM EST for Poster Presentations and a Live Question & Answer Session moderated by Kiana Bess. View this video for a brief introduction to the presenters and their research.

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