Staff & Fellows | 2021 Annual Report

Priya Prabhakar is a rising senior at Scripps College, pursuing a degree in Media Studies with a focus in labor, surveillance, and visual theory. Priya has previously worked at the Worker Rights Consortium where she did research about labor union movements of garment workers in the Global South.

Rolando received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Pitzer College, completing a double major in Sociology and Spanish. As an undergraduate, Rolando completed two qualitative-based theses centering on Intercultural Bilingual Education and the revitalization of indigenous identity in Andean Ecuador, and a second thesis project examining the fluidity of racial and ethnic identity formations of Latinx students in domestic and international contexts after completing study abroad programs.

Anna Palmer received her Bachelors of Arts degree in Sociology with a concentration in migration, race, and education at Occidental College. For the last few years, Anna served as the Education in Action (EIA) Coordinator at the Center for Community Based Learning where she collaborated with multiple stakeholders to develop reciprocal community-based projects and research.

Hana Beach is a graduate of Barnard College with a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies and concentration in History. Her coursework centered on urban political economies and explored their ripplings into the built environment. It culminated in a senior thesis that probed IBM’s role in the spatial and economic growth of Rochester, Minnesota. Previously, she worked as a fellow at the Jain Family Institute where she contributed to the institute’s communications and editorial work.

Sonam Kotadia recently received her Masters of Arts degree in International Security with concentrations in global risks and research methods from Sciences Po Paris. Her master's thesis compared the attitudes and values of supporters of left- and right-wing populists in the US and France in 2016. At the Haas Institute, she will be working with the Civic Engagement Narrative Change project to research voting rights and political participation.

Gia Jones is a rising third year at the University of California, Berkley studying Society and Environment with a concentration of Justice and Sustainability while also minoring in Food Systems and African-American Studies. Outside of academics, she works with local organizations feeding and improving the lives of marginalized people suffering from systemic houselessness.

Kajol Gupta is working towards a dual-degree in Conservation & Resource Studies as well as Gender & Women's Studies at UC Berkeley. Focusing on the intersection of race and gender within environmental justice issues in her academic career, Kajol has also served as a commissioner for the Community Health Commission under the City of Berkeley, as well as worked as a research assistant for the Berkeley Center for Social Medicine.

Jonathan (Jon) Farrell (he, him his) is a Master of Social Work candidate at California State University, Dominguez Hills. As a Central Los Angeles-based graduate student, his research interests include the impact of transit-oriented housing displacement on communities with limited asset wealth, the cyclical impact of low academic achievement in high-poverty neighborhoods, and examining the correlation of traditional gender roles and unreported dating violence within the Mexican-American community.

Yvette Chen is a Master of City Planning candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interest is in fair and equitable housing through a racial equity framework. This includes the development of fair housing through legal frameworks and equitable housing disaster recovery. Prior to joining the Haas Institute, Yvette earned her BA from Oberlin College in Sociology and Economics.

Maritza Perez is a Research Assistant at the Haas Institute and is in her final semester at Berkeley Law. Her background as a first-generation American and college graduate fueled her desire to become involved in progressive politics from an early age in order to dismantle inequitable treatment of underrepresented groups. She joined Teach For America (TFA) after college to foster academic growth in New Orleans public schools.

Fanna Gamal is a Research Assistant at the Haas Institute. She is currently a law student at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Before law school Fanna served as a Campaign Associate for ColorOfChange.org -- America's largest online civil rights organization. As an Associate Fanna worked on voting rights, criminal justice and labor campaigns.

Priyal Bhatt is a fourth-year undergraduate student at UC Berkeley studying Political Economy and Public Policy. As a Network Research Assistant, she assists in managing the Haas Institute's work on its Network for Transformative Change. In addition to internships in the social and environmental justice arena, she has been an active member of the service community at Cal. Outside of academics, Priyal is passionate about girls' education issues, exploring new cuisines, and reading historical fiction novels.

Alisa Zhao a research assistant with the Haas Institute's Regional Economic Equity project. Alisa is a senior at UC Berkeley studying economics and psychology. She is an honor student at Hinshaw’s lab in the Institute of Human development, working on an honor thesis regarding racial/ethnic differences of ADHD treatment outcome. Previously, Alisa was a senior research staff at Culture and Cognition Lab. She co-developed several research projects investigating racial/ethnic differences on power, beauty, crowd emotion and perception in Tsinghua University and UC Berkeley.

Alexis Alvarez-Franco works as a Research Assistant on the impact of the Berkeley Global Campus as an anchor institution on marginalized communities in order to catalyze economic growth in these communities. Alexis was one of the authors of the "Anchor Richmond" report published by the Haas Institute. Alexis is a San Diego native and has previously worked with institutions focusing on policy research within the San Diego-Tijuana region. Alexis is a senior at UC Berkeley majoring in Political Economy and minoring in Environmental Design and Urbanism.

Sharanya Sriram is a Summer Fellow with the Haas Institute, working with the Roosevelt Institute Summer Academy. She is a rising sophomore at Georgetown University, studying International Politics: Security Studies with a concentration in International Development. At the Institute, Sharanya worked on UC Berkeley's status as an anchor institution, especially with regard to the proposed Richmond Bay campus extension.

Jasmine Sadat recently finished her Master’s in City & Regional Planning from the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley. Her concentrations are Housing, Community, and Economic Development (HCED) and Land Use. At HIFIS, Jasmine will be conducting spatial analyses and creating maps for research projects involving social justice issues. Jasmine will also be summarizing data as tables, charts or other visual representations in connection with employment, housing, education, and other contexts in the social justice arena.

Rasheed Shabazz is a multimedia journalist and researcher. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a Bachelors in African American Studies and Political Science, with a minor in City and Regional Planning. Rasheed was most recently a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley, focusing on the establishment and operation of Black student news publications across the UC System.

Natalia Reyes is a third year undergraduate at UC Berkeley double majoring in Legal Studies and Rhetoric with a concentration in Public Discourse. Natalia lives and works in the student-governed Berkeley Student Cooperative, where she has been a Board Member and is currently working to establish a substance-free Academic Theme House. In addition to her outreach and publications work as Communications Fellow for the Haas Institute, Natalia conducts research on human rights discourse and the Colombian Constitutional Court.

Thomas Nolan is a second year law student at UC Berkeley School of Law and is interested in land use, privacy and immigration. Last fall he worked with the California Asylum Representation Clinic and represented his first client under attorney supervision. He was raised in Washington state and received a BA in History at the University of Washington in Seattle. His senior thesis analyzed the legal and societal processes that led to the exclusion of Pacific Northwest tribes from the commercial fishing industry in the late 19th century.

Monica Elizondo is passionate about the intersections of food justice, social justice and inclusivity in the environmental movement. She is starting her second year at Diablo Valley College and hopes to double major at Cal in Environmental Science along with Society and Environment. She was honored to be a fellow at the Haas Institute because of the tremendous potential to make systemic change through research, policy and advocacy. Monica was an intern for several years at Summer of Solutions: Oakland, a youth-led grassroots program in Fruitvale.