Summer Fellowship

Mylanah Yolangco

Mylanah Yolangco is a recently graduated master’s student in Public Health at UC Berkeley in the Health and Social Behavior concentration. Before beginning her graduate program, Mylanah managed and supported a team dedicated to increasing bone marrow and blood stem cell donor availability throughout the Bay Area and Northern California. She also served on the Asian Engagement & Recruitment Core committee for the National Institute of Health's All of Us Research Program.

Rohin Ghosh

Rohin Ghosh (he/him) is an undergraduate student at American University in Washington, DC with a major in American Studies. He is a passionate advocate for housing justice, working as a tenant organizer in both DC and the Bay Area and advocating for affordable housing and sustainable, equitable land use and transportation as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in DC. He is also heavily involved in efforts to build student and worker solidarity to support economic justice campaigns on and off campus.

Asli McCullers

Asli McCullers (she/her) is a health equity researcher and changemaker with a passion for amplifying peace, social justice and public health. She strives to interrupt the pathway to health inequity by addressing the dynamic array of health challenges faced by young adults of marginalized backgrounds. Her research and advocacy efforts have included foci in cardiovascular disease, reproductive health, mental health, tobacco control, cancer and much more!

Katy Rose Robeson

Katy Rose Robeson (she/her/hers) graduated with her B.A. in Anthropology and International Studies, and returned to the University of Michigan to pursue her MSW, specializing in global social work. Her interests lay in narratives of trauma and healing, particularly with regard for historical violence, resilience, and community. Through the summer fellowship with OBI, Katy Rose aims to hone the practical skills needed to leverage her curiosity and passion for healing in research that can be practically applied within and beyond the disciplines of anthropology and social work.

Dillon Muhly-Alexander

Dillon Muhly-Alexander is a doctoral student in the Educational Policy and Planning department at the University of Texas at Austin. Dillon attended West Virginia University for his undergraduate and received an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge. As a native West Virginian, he is particularly interested in the relationship between socioeconomic status and issues of equity, particularly within Appalachia and other developing economies.

Van Tran

Van Tran, originally from Vietnam, is a recent graduate from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, where she majored in International Studies with a concentration on the Asia-Pacific region and immigration. Her senior thesis, which studies the effect of political regimes on perceived discrimination among immigrants, received Rhodes College's John Franklin Copper Award for Excellence. Van's academic and professional careers combine her interests in law, international relations, and technology.

Zoya Gheisar

Zoya Gheisar (She/Her) is a proud Seattleite and recent graduate of Denison University, with a double major in history and data analytics, concentration in political science, and minor in Spanish. She is passionate about how data can be used to create more effective and equitable policy. Last summer, she interned for King County Executive's Office, where she supported the update of the County's Determinants of Equity report which outlines metrics for determining baseline equity conditions. In the fall, Zoya will be serving as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Colombia.

Onaedo Okoye

Onaedo Okoye is a researcher, educator, and advocate who received her bachelor's degree in International Relations with minors in International Business and Africana Studies. Onaedo held several leadership positions, including being a SNF Ithaca Student Leader, Governmental Affairs Senator, and Research Assistant.

Julie Gonzalez

Julie (They/She/He) holds a BA in Latino/a Studies with minors in Race and Resistance and Education from SF State and an MA in Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA. After undergrad, they focused on developing youth empowerment programs and wellness services. In addition to youth work, Julie is interested in continuing to learn about agroecology and building local and autonomous food networks that are culturally and contextually relevant within BIPOC and work-class communities.

Katherine Funes

Katherine Funes (they/she) is a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Irvine in the department of Global & International Studies from Los Angeles. Their research sits at the intersections of queer mobilities, environmental justice, and abolition among El Salvador’s LGBTIQ communities.

Siri Russell

Siri Russell (she/her) is a current PhD student in the Constructed Environment at the University of Virginia. Her educational background also includes master’s degrees in community and economic development and business administration. Siri’s professional experience has been grounded in operationalizing equity and inclusion, particularly in the local government context. She serves as co-director of the Urban Data Equity Lab and the Local Government Equity Clinic at UVA.

Courtney Wooten

A lifelong learner, writer, artist, speaker and activist, Courtney Wooten holds a BA in Sociology from Stanford, an MA in Social Justice & Community Organizing, and is a current PhD student in Sustainability Education at Prescott College in AZ. Courtney is the founder of Suburbia Rising/Stories of Self & Solidarity, and co-founder of the Justice & Faith Collective. Her academic interests include radical imagination, abolition, restorative and regenerative practices, cross-cultural epistemologies, and decolonizing pedagogy.

Abby Steckel

Abby Steckel (she/her) recently graduated from Yale University with a BS in Statistics & Data Science. As an undergraduate, she participated in Stop Solitary CT, a campaign to end solitary confinement in Connecticut prisons and jails, and volunteered for several immigration legal services providers. She is interested in understanding the role of data in both reproducing systemic racism and, hopefully, building more just and equitable public policies and programs.

Connor Nakamura

Connor Nakamura (he/him) is a rising sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania with a major in Urban Studies. Stemming from his experience in the community land trust and food sovereignty movements, he is interested in alternatives to traditional conceptions of urban planning. He is passionate about affordable housing policy, urban social movements, and critical theory. At Penn, he writes for 34th Street magazine where he covers local activism on campus and in the broader Philadelphia community.

Darlene Reyes

Darlene Reyes (She/her/hers) is a first-generation Salvadoran-American and will be graduating from the University of Virginia with a Masters in Education in Educational Psychology in the Fall of 2022. She is a Northwestern University alumna and 2019 Fulbright U.S. Student Program Fellowship Aluma. Her Fulbright Fellowship research focused on the Imposter Syndrome in Brazil within Higher Education. Darlene is an advocate for educational equity and passionate about holistic solutions for students of all backgrounds.

Esther Garcia

Esther (they/them) is a PhD student at UCI's Department of Anthropology where they research abolitionist social movements and social justice organizers in Atlanta, GA. They were born and raised in the US South and received their Bachelor's of Anthropology at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. They are the child of Guatemalan and Mexican migrants and use their lived experiences as a queer, trans, disabled person to create the world they want to see.