The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
Doctor of Philosophy in Social Policy

Economic and Racial Equity Concentration

Ophelia Akoto

Ophelia Akoto

Ophelia Delali A. Akoto is a doctoral candidate in the Economic and Racial Equity concentration. Her research interests include the wage gap amongst minorities, systemic racial poverty, women entrepreneurship in Africa, and gender equity. She holds a Master of Public Service degree from the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service and an MBA from the University of Central Arkansas. Before joining the Heller School, Ophelia worked as a research and evaluation fellow at Vital Voices Global Partnerships in Washington DC, where she examined the impact of COVID-19 on the women within the Vital Voices network. She also worked as a researcher for the Newport Economic Development Committee, where she conducted extensive research on barriers preventing women from participating in the labor force in Newport, Arkansas. She hopes to better understand the intricacies of economic and racial equity research. She received her BA in Business from Henderson State University.
Aaron Coleman

Aaron D. Camp

Aaron D. Camp is a PhD candidate in Social Policy at Brandeis University. He received an MSW from Boston University, of Boston, Mass., in 2012 and a BSW from Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, N.C., in 2009. Prior to his doctoral studies, Aaron became a teacher in a title one public school located in Anacostia, Washington, D.C. As a program coordinator at the Boston Public Health Commission, he also lobbied Massachusetts legislatures to include enumeration efforts for anti-bullying and piloted health education programs within Boston Public High Schools. A recipient of the rigorous and renowned Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholars fellowship, Aaron’s research interests include education inequality, the culture of poverty, social movements, community network systems, syndemics and HIV/AIDS among Black men who have sex with men. His current work includes a study aiming to understand the role of religious doctrine on congregational health programming efforts.
Kaitie Chakoian-Lifvergren

Kaitie Chakoian-Lifvergren

Kaitie is a doctoral candidate studying Social Policy at the Heller School and Sociology through the College of Arts and Sciences. Her academic and professional work has centered on gender-based violence. She is currently a Graduate Research Assistant in the Institute for Economic and Racial Equity (formerly IASP) working on an action research project evaluating a new national training and technical assistance program for agencies that support survivors of human trafficking. She has also done research on the impact of sexual harassment on home health workers, the experience of female black college students who experience racial and sexual harassment, and Boston Builds Credit, a citywide campaign to improve financial outcomes for Boston residents. Kaitie earned an MEd from Northeastern University and a BA from Simmons College. Prior to the PhD program at Brandeis, Kaitie worked in the gender-based violence movement doing direct service, volunteer management, and community mobilization work. She is a Commissioner on the Upper Middlesex Regional Commission on the Status of Women. Future research will examine instances of gender-based violence and the myriad sites and causes of loss of agency, as well as survivor resistance, with a focus on the effects of trauma on embodiment.
Quentin Cox

Quentin Cox

Quentin Cox is a doctoral student in the Economic and Racial Equity concentration at the Heller School. He earned a Master of Divinity with a concentration in Religion and Economic Justice from Vanderbilt University Divinity School and a Bachelor of Science in Management from the United States Air Force Academy. Prior to joining the Heller School, Quentin served as the Project Director of Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative at American Baptist College. His research interests focus on how historically Black institutions like the Black church and Historically Black Colleges and Universities can create systemic solutions for America’s racial wealth gap.

Fernanda Escobar

Fernanda Escobar

Fernanda Escobar is a doctoral candidate in the Economic and Racial Equity concentration. Her research interests include American immigration, intergenerational mobility, and poverty and equality of opportunity in the United States. She holds a Master's degree in Public Policy with a concentration in poverty alleviation from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Prior to her doctoral studies, Fernanda was a research associate at the Institute for Economic and Racial Equity (formerly IASP), where she did quantitative analysis of national data to help understand the impact of policies on the racial wealth gap. Her prior jobs at the Consulate of Ecuador in Boston and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition provided her with a better understanding of how sound and well-developed policies can tackle the economic and social disparities between the immigrant community and American society. In addition, Fernanda has worked with disadvantaged communities in her home country, Ecuador, where she interned at the World Bank and volunteered with several NGOs.
Anthony Grant

Anthony Grant

Anthony Grant is a PhD student in Social Policy with a concentration in Economic and Racial Equity in The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. He received a Master of Science in Social Justice from Fisk University and a Bachelor of Arts in History with a concentration in U.S. History from Syracuse University. Prior to Brandeis, Anthony worked college admissions counseling for nearly 15 years at colleges such as Syracuse University and University of Richmond, and read applications at UC Berkeley and Georgia Tech. He most recently served as the inaugural College and Career Coach at Walter Payton College Preparatory High School in Chicago, IL. 

Anthony’s primary research interest is focused on how intraracial xenophobia manifests in the U.S. between African American, Caribbean, and African people. His secondary research interests include the relationships between organizational policies and practices and the impact they have on marginalized people, and social behavior related to COVID-19 and the long-term impact of COVID-19 on marginalized communities. 

Anthony’s been the recipient of numerous fellowships to support his PhD education and research by the following organizations: (1) Brandeis University, Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies program; (2) Brandeis University, Samuels Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation; (3) University of Virginia, Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature, and Culture; (4) The New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; (5) George Mason University, Meractus Center; (6) Emory University, Stuart A Rose Manuscript, and Rare Book Library.

Zachary Hylton

Zachary Hylton

Zachary Hylton is a doctoral candidate in the Economic and Racial Equity Concentration at the Heller School. He received a Master of Development Practice from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology Anthropology and Political Science from Saint Olaf College. Prior to his candidacy, Zachary worked in government administration coordinating strategic projects to transform systems in homelessness, public safety, budgeting, and more. His research interests focus on organizational development, racial equity, community engagement, and how institutions can evolve to define success through improvements in the wellbeing of their most harmed communities.
Jonathan Jacob

Jonathan Jacob

Jonathan Jacob is a doctoral student pursuing a joint degree in Sociology and Social Policy at the Heller School. His research interests include issues of labor, social inequality, and culture. Jacob’s current research examines the inverse relationship between the usefulness of certain jobs and their pay in modern capitalist societies, and focuses on developing a metric to assess the social value of work. Prior to joining the Heller School, Jacob worked as a high school educator in Los Angeles County. He holds an MA in social sciences from The University of Chicago and a BA in business from Brandeis University.
Danny Nussbaum

Daniel Nussbaum

Daniel Nussbaum is a PhD student in the Heller School with an Economic and Racial Equity concentration. He is a Research Associate at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University. In his work, he handles project and data management for local Jewish community studies and the American Jewish Population Project. His research produces reliable data that help Jewish communities make well-informed policy decisions. His research interests include socio-demography, intergroup processes, and survey methodology. He earned a Master of Public Policy from the Heller School and an MA in Jewish Professional Leadership from Brandeis University in 2020. He has a BS in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

PhD student Jordan Berg Powers

Jordan Berg Powers

Jordan is a PhD student in the Economic and Racial Equity concentration. As the former Executive Director of Mass Alliance, where he was for 13 years, Jordan led a broad coalition of 29 organizations with different sizes, structures, and focus. Jordan knitted together these disparate groups to build a powerful, cohesive table dedicated to making Massachusetts more just. If you voted in Massachusetts in the last 15 years, you have engaged with Jordan’s work through a ballot initiative, campaign, and/or policy win. In 2015, Jordan was recognized for his exceptional work as an inaugural inductee into the 40 under 40 Pollie Award. Jordan serves on several boards serving a broad array of Jewish and/or Justice work nationally and in the Boston area. He completed a master's from the London School of Oriental and African Studies and earned bachelor's degrees from American University in Economics and International Studies.
Janelle Ridley

Janelle Ridley

Janelle Ridley is a doctoral student in the Economic and Racial Equity concentration. Ridley has dedicated her career to serving youth in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She has been a social worker, a teacher, and the founder of Transition HOPE, a program designed to give system-involved youth purpose, pathways, and encouragement.

After a 16-year career serving youth, she is excited to tackle research critically with a goal of finding the next direction for her work and youth services in general. She hopes her time in the doctoral program will “… allow me to think about the direction for HOPE and for the work moving forward. And joining the staff at Heller is exciting because I get to share what I’ve learned over the past 16 years with other young people… sharing the positives, but also the negatives to this work – the joys you get when you know you make an impact, and the burden you carry when you see that these systems are so dysfunctional.”  Ridley received her undergraduate degree from Lasell College.

Emily Su Ni Thoman

Emily Su Ni Thoman

Emily Su Ni Thoman is a PhD candidate in the Economic and Racial Equity concentration at the Heller School at Brandeis University. She received her MS in Criminal Justice with a sub-concentration in Strategic Management and her BA in Political Science and History with a minor in Education, both from Boston University. Prior to her doctoral studies, Emily worked as a college advisor with College Advising Corps at Charlestown High School in Charlestown, MA. Her primary research interests focus on the impact of the Model Minority Myth on Asian subgroups within the political, education, and criminal justice systems, with a focus on the way policy in all three arenas has impeded racial equity and solidarity in America. 
Vilma Uribe

Vilma Uribe

Vilma Uribe is a PhD student in the Economic and Racial Equity concentration at The Heller School at Brandeis University. She received an MA in Conflict Resolution and Coexistence from The Heller School at Brandeis University and a BA in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies and Comparative American Studies from Oberlin College. Vilma currently serves as Director of Policy and Systems Advocacy at REACH Beyond Domestic Violence, where works to address systemic and legislative barriers and to expand the ecosystem of support for survivors of domestic violence. Vilma’s research focus is on policy-based approaches to support the collective economic power of survivors of violence and people of color.