Student Affairs
Meet the GPS Fellows
2015–16
Efrain Brito
Efrain Brito is a Social Justice Educator and a doctoral student at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education in the Race, Inequality, and Language in Education Program. He is committed to transforming the education landscape for students of color and joined Teach for America (TFA) in 2011 to do that. As a TFA corps member, Efrain worked as a middle school teacher in Los Angeles and earned a Masters in Education degree in Urban Teaching from UCLA.
At Stanford, Efrain has focused his research on causes that work with surrounding communities, including taking a leadership role in the Stanford Community Interpreting Project, conducting research on an Integrated Student Services program in San José, and working with the Gardner Center in its evaluation of the community schools initiative at a local school district. This fall, Efrain will work with a community service organization in Oakland to implement a writing program for adolescent girls.
Efrain has had a lifelong commitment to serving underrepresented communities. As an attorney in Washington, DC and Los Angeles, he supported diverse communities through varied pro bono legal work, including landlord-tenant disputes, domestic violence clinics, asylum claims for clients from Central and South America, and visiting imprisoned immigration detainees.
Nick Camp
Nick is a PhD candidate in the Social Psychology. Originally from Baltimore, he holds a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University, where he graduated in 2009. Before coming to Stanford, he managed the Laboratory of Intergroup Relations and the Social Mind, where he contributed to research with LGB communities on the negative health effects of concealing one’s sexual orientation.
Nick’s current research examines how interactions between police officers and community members can build or erode trust. In particular, he studies how a cycle of police bias and community mistrust shapes interactions between police officers and racial minorities, with profound psychological consequences.
Community service is both the ends and means of his research. He is interested in working with communities in Oakland and the Oakland Police Department to develop and implement interventions to improve procedural fairness in policing, ranging from bias reduction interventions in how police officers construe their social role to institutional reform designed to give citizens a substantive voice to communicate their experiences to police officers. Nick hopes his participation in the Haas fellowship will train him to build community partnerships into the core of his research.
Dean Chahim
Dean Chahim is a second-year doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology. His dissertation project focuses on engineers and the politics of water infrastructure in Mexico City. Before coming to Stanford, he worked professionally as an environmental engineer on the clean-up of industrial pollutants in his hometown of Seattle. At the same time, he volunteered as an organizer with low-wage Latino workers fighting against wage theft with the Seattle Solidarity Network and co-designed and taught a class on Engineering for Social Justice at the University of Washington, his alma mater.
As an undergraduate student, Dean worked extensively with Engineers Without Borders on projects in Bolivia before becoming disillusioned through research he conducted on NGOs in Nicaragua. He later co-founded and ran a student organization promoting critical reflection on the politics of development practice among students interested in “saving the world” through voluntourism. After many existential crises, he graduated with a B.A. in International Development and Social Change and a B.S.C.E. in Civil & Environmental Engineering.
He continues to organize with workers and tenants in the South Bay and hopes to further develop workshops and courses for engineers interested in thinking about the politics and possibilities of their seemingly technical discipline.
Susana Claro
Susana Claro is a Chilean engineer starting her 5th year as a PhD in Economics of Education. She is studying motivation in teachers and students. In particular, she has studied growth mindset at a national level, documenting a big growth mindset gap across socioeconomic groups in Chile. She has been running field experiments to study the effect of growth mindset in teachers and their students.
She co-founded Enseña Chile, member of the Teach for All network that recruits outstanding graduates to teach at low income communities and to grow a movement for educational equity. More than 2,000 people apply to Enseña Chile every year. She worked as advisor to the Secretary of Education in Chile joining the earthquake relief efforts in 2010. She has taught programing and robotics to children from K-12 in the US and Chile, and she taught education to engineer college students. She also worked at Teach for All studying what do best teachers do differently around the world. Currently, she serves as advisor of various non-profit in the US and Chile.
Thea De Armond
Thea is a PhD student in the Department of Classics and at the Stanford Archaeology Center. She has excavated in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Georgia. Her dissertation is on the history of classics and archaeology in the former Czechoslovakia. Though she has taught English in Georgia in conjunction with her excavations there, most of her public service work has been closer to home. At Stanford, she has helped organize several Archaeology Open Days, with the aim of acquainting the wider Palo Alto community with the work of the Stanford Archaeology Center. She has also been involved with Stanford’s Big Dig (no longer extant) and the Market Street Chinatown Archaeology Project, both of which stage(d) mock excavations of local archaeological materials to teach the community about archaeology and local history, especially that of historically disenfranchised communities.
This past year, she has begun to work with two non-Stanford-affiliated projects that help to educate disenfranchised communities – Community Education Partnerships (CEP), which provides tutoring to homeless students, and the Prison University Project (PUP), which offers free courses for university credit at San Quentin Prison.
She is interested in further developing her public service work and more tightly allying it with her academic work.
Diana Esther Guzman
Diana Esther Guzmán is a JSD candidate at Stanford Law School and Associate Professor at the National University of Colombia. She holds a JSM from Stanford University and and an L.L.M., an advanced degree in Constitutional Law and a J.D. from the National University (Colombia). Her work focuses on sociology of law and human rights,historical and political sociology, and gender issues, with a focus in Latin America.
Before coming to Stanford she was a Senior Researcher at the Center for the Study of Law, Justice, and Society (Dejusticia), a leading think tank in her country, where she conducted multiple research projects on Human Rights, with a special emphasis on women’s rights. During those years Diana participated in strategic litigation efforts in favor of the LGBTI population, in initiatives of popular education with victims of Human Rights violations, and in national and international advocacy strategies to protect the rights of women victims of the internal armed conflict. Diana has been lecturer in areas of Constitutional law, Legal Theory and Human Rights in several Colombian Universities.
Anna Lee
Anna Lee is a second year PhD student in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources in the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences. Her research focuses on consumer information-seeking, engagement with knowledge, identity construction, and decision-making in the food system.
Anna did her undergraduate work at Stanford in Earth Systems and Anthropological Sciences, and stayed on for a coterminal Master’s degree in Earth Systems. After graduation, she worked in the Program on Food Security and the Environment, studying climate and yields of staple crops in developing countries, before moving to Santa Cruz to participate in the Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at UCSC. There, she learned the fundamentals of organic agriculture, and made friends with a bunch of aspiring farmers and social justice advocates whose passion for improving the food system inspired her. After working at that farm and a few others, Anna went back to grad school, this time at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she studied the roles of community, identity, and science in organic farmers’ decision-making as part of her Master’s work in Agroecology before coming back to Stanford last fall.
Rebekah LeMahieu
Rebekah LeMahieu is a third year doctoral student studying Developmental and Psychological Sciences in the Graduate School of Education. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013 with a degree in Human Development and Family Studies. Prior to her time at Stanford, Rebekah worked for the Waisman Center, a research center for human development and developmental disorders, serving as a liaison between families and researchers.
Her research focuses on early childhood education, with particular interest in the ways in which parents support children’s early learning at home. Her current projects explore early math learning, both in the home and in preschools. One such project is aimed at working with families and community partners to develop and distribute home-based math resources to parents of preschoolers, and the other is examining the effects of an early math professional development program for early childhood educators.
In addition, Rebekah was the teaching assistant for Tutoring: Seeing a Child through Literacy, an undergraduate service-learning course. Students in the course are paired with an elementary school student in East Palo Alto to provide bi-weekly literacy tutoring.
Xavier Monroe
Xavier J. Monroe is a PhD student in Educational Policy at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. His research interests include: (a) the intersection between policy and practice to improve student achievement and opportunity, (b) family and community partnerships with schools, (c) school and community transformation, and (d) issues of equity and access, particularly within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. Monroe studies aspects of these issues using an interdisciplinary approach, including using historical and sociological lenses. He has conducted qualitative research in Kano, Nigeria in an effort to examine the Chinese impact on the industrial manufacturing and trade economy of the region. He also conducted research in Michigan schools that concerned pedagogical practices, inquiry based learning, school climate and environment, and student outcomes.
Monroe holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in History, with Minors in African Studies and Math Education, from the University of Florida. He obtained his Master of Arts in Educational Leadership & Policy from the University of Michigan. He has served as a U.S. House of Representatives page, Alachua County Library District Trustee, Putnam-Alachua-Levy Library Cooperative Governor, and a Board Fellow for the United Way of Washtenaw County.
Eduardo Munoz-Munoz
Eduardo Muñoz-Muñoz obtained his Lincenciatura in English Philology in the University of Córdoba (Spain) and his Master of Arts in Education from UC Berkeley. His experience as an educator in diverse capacities spans over 13 years. In addition to teaching in elementary, secondary and higher education in Spain, the UK and the US, he was an English Learner Coach and Principal before starting his doctoral studies at Stanford University in 2012. Eduardo’s research interests are bilingual education, English Learners and community interpretation. As such, he has taken part and researched the San Francisco Unified School District-Stanford and the Pescadero Unified School District-Puente de la Costa del Sur-Stanford partnerships. Currently, he is also a lecturer supporting preservice teachers and the teaching of minority languages, which brings together his passion for instruction, equity and direct impact in educational settings. While at Stanford, he has become involved in student leadership and the promotion of diversity in academia by becoming the co-coordinator of the Language, Equity and Educational Policy research group, the academic co-chair of the Student Guild in the Graduate School of Education and the co-chair of the Diversity Advocacy Committee within Stanford’s Graduate Student Council.
Alexis Mychajliw
Alexis Mychajliw is a PhD candidate studying conservation paleobiology in the Department of Biology, School of Humanities & Sciences. She graduated from Cornell University’s College of Agriculture & Life Sciences with a BS in Biological Sciences and minors in Natural Resource Management and Applied Economics. Her dissertation uses the fossil record and studies of living species to forecast the future of mammalian biodiversity.
She first discovered community-engaged research in her work with Cornell Cooperative Extension, where she collected water quality data with the dual purpose of protecting the health of the environment and of residents living in rural communities. She continued this path of integrating the scientific and human dimensions of conservation as a research intern at New York City Audubon and through conservation policy exploration in Washington DC. At Stanford, she has co-instructed the community-engaged learning course Bio 128 Geographic Impacts of Global Change: Mapping the Stories, in which undergraduates learned to value knowledge from diverse stakeholders and produced a science communication product for the general public.
She is passionate about ensuring that conservation science and policies benefit both humans and wildlife, and that all communities and stakeholders have a voice in issues facing their own local environments.
Becky Niemiec
Becky is a PhD student in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources in the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences. Through her research, Becky seeks to integrate psychology, sociology, and landscape ecology to understand how to better manage invasive species across private lands. Specifically, she is examined what influences landowner collective action in response to the threat of invasive species in communities in New Zealand and Hawaii and how landowner actions influence the distribution of invasive species across a landscape. Before coming to Stanford, Becky worked with Landcare Research in New Zealand on a community-engaged research project seeking to understand citizen attitudes towards invasive species. Over the past 5 years, Becky has also pursued service work with Sierra Club Los Angeles' Inspiring Connections Outdoors, through which she worked with local teachers to develop and lead outdoor science trips for students from underserved schools.
Marlene Orozco
Marlene Orozco is originally from Chicago, Illinois. She obtained a B.A. in Sociology with Honors at Stanford in 2010 where she was very involved in public service and the Haas Center. She worked with EPASA for four years as a tutor and then student director throughout the school year but also as a summer fellow through the Education Youth and Development Fellowship. She was also part of the Public Service Scholars Program where she obtained interdisciplinary support from peers on her honors thesis, which looked at the integration of undocumented immigrant parents into schools. Through this work, she was awarded the Andrea Naomi Leiderman Fellowship.
After her initial stint at Stanford, she pursued a master’s degree in Education Policy and Management at Harvard where she learned of effective policy measures taking shape inside the classroom. Most recently, she taught at a charter school in San Jose, California for three years. As the 4th grade lead teacher, she also worked closely with parents to foster parent engagement and involvement. Now, she is pursuing a PhD in Sociology where her interests include immigration and organizations with a focus on education, incorporation and civic engagement.
Indira Phukan
Indira is a PhD student in Science Education at Stanford University's Graduate School of Education and a Master’s student in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program for Environment and Resources. Her research interests include: (1) the long-term impact of environmental education programming on student action (2) effective pedagogies in science education, (3) how diversity in culture and socioeconomic status interacts with access to the environment, and (4) how student access to nature can be improved. Blending her interdisciplinary work at Stanford and her professional teaching background, Indira seeks to conduct research that communities want and are able to put to use. She has conducted qualitative research with environmental education programming in the Bay Area and in Yosemite National Park. Most recently, these projects have focused on social networks and the use of language in the classroom.
Indira earned a MA in special education through Teach for America and a BA with honors in history from Harvard College. She has two years experience teaching in a special education classroom in a Title 1 school, as well as experience in formally training teachers. Most recently, she worked as an educator, diversity coordinator, and site manager in Yosemite National Park a non-profit environmental education company.
Natassia Rodriguez
Natassia Rodriguez is a PhD candidate in sociology in the School of Humanities and Sciences. She is originally from Philadelphia and completed her undergraduate in Sociology and Social/Education Policy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Through her studies and volunteer work as an undergraduate, Natassia became interested in education policies and the schooling experiences of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Her current research projects span assessments of how low-income households manage to invest in young children’s education, poverty reduction in California via education programs, to the experiences and employment outcomes of low-income college graduates. Natassia interned with the Public Policy Institute of California in 2013 examining the Local Control Funding Formula, an experience that solidified her interest in conducting research with social impacts.
Natassia is currently a volunteer with the Mountain View Community Services Agency assisting with their Senior Nutrition Program. In previous years of her graduate student career, she served as a mentor for Stanford undergraduates from diverse backgrounds and a role model/teacher for a preschool age child through the East Palo Alto-based nonprofit 10 Books A Home. Natassia also served for multiple years as a representative in her department’s student government, planning both community service events and professional development opportunities.
Sarah Shirazyan
Sarah Shirazyan is a Doctor of Juridical Sciences (J.S.D.) candidate at Stanford Law School, specializing in international law with a focus on civil liberties, transnational security and disarmament issues. Her research situates itself at the intersection of law, public policy, and political science. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, Sarah empirically investigates how the UN Security Council exercises its mandate to combats nuclear, biological and chemical terrorism and how decisions made at an international level directly impact our day-to-day security environment. Her dissertation provides a comprehensive view of the UN Security Council’s internal dynamics and its performance in addressing today’s major security challenges.
Sarah’s previous work at Stanford has included analysis of prison reforms in emerging democracies. Working directly with offenders in remote parts of Armenia, her research helped key stakeholders to design and introduce community-based corrections as an alternative to incarceration.
Stanford University has named Sarah as one of the recipients of Gerald J. Lieberman Fellowship, awarded to those who have demonstrated the skills necessary for becoming academic and community leaders.
Sarah held multiple posts with leading international organizations. Most recently, she served as a Drafting Lawyer for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Previously, Sarah has worked on issues of nuclear security at the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. Additionally, she handled international drug investigations as part of her time at the Drugs and Organized Crime Directorate of INTERPOL. Currently, Sarah serves as a Special Consultant to the Council of Europe and EU, where she helps develop European human rights standards for data privacy and data protection.
Swain Uber
Swain Uber is a graduate student pursuing a joint degree (J.D./M.A.) in law at Stanford Law School and in international policy at the Ford Dorsery Program in International Policy Studies at Stanford University. He graduated from University of Pittsburgh with a B.A. in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. After graduating, he joined the Peace Corps, serving for over two years in Bulgaria.
At Stanford, he has focused on human rights and conflict resolution work, particularly through his work with the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic where he worked on prison conditions in Panamá, police reform in Oakland, California, and land rights mobilization in Cambodia. He spent a summer in Bogotá, Colombia, with DeJusticia, a Colombian human rights organization, working on business and human rights issues, and another at the European Roma Rights Centre in Budapest, Hungary, where he did research in Bulgarian and drafted memos and complaints on cases involving Roma individuals (e.g. cases concerning police brutality and the failure to investigate crimes, forced sterilizations, hate speech etc.). Currently, he is working in Uganda with the Refugee Law Project on transitional justice and conflict resolution and reconciliation issues.
Tanner Vea
Tanner Vea is a doctoral candidate in learning sciences and technology design in the Graduate School of Education. He studies how people learn to reason about and act on ethical questions in their lives, including environmental concerns, human-animal relations, and the politics of technology design. He seeks to avoid imposing elite notions of ethics by working directly with community members – such as high school students, university students, and activists – to understand their ethical concerns and design learning experiences that privilege their own values and ways of being.
At Stanford, Tanner has served for two years as Communications Chair and Community Co-Chair for the GSE Student Guild. In his research with Stanford faculty, he has worked with K-12 students and educators in California and Utah to help them use design thinking practices as a way to build interest in STEM domains. Before coming to Stanford, Tanner was an Emmy-nominated interactive media producer for PBS and PBS KIDS programming at WNET in New York.
Yanshuo Zhang
Yanshuo Zhang is a PhD candidate in Chinese literature and culture in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Stanford University. She has long devoted herself to serving the community and bringing public well-fare through her personal talents and academic work. Yanshuo is the founder and president of Stanford Youth Cultural Exchange Initiative (SYCEI), a registered Volunteer Student Organization that helps adopted kids from Asia and other parts of the world to learn about their native cultures. She is passionate about birding cultures and aspires to help the world become a more harmonious place through both scholarly and community work.
Right now, she is working on her dissertation that tackles the issue of the loss of "home" for contemporary China in an ecological, ethnic and cultural sense as the country is undergoing rapid modernization. Hailing from Sichuan, China, Yanshuo went to St. Catherine University in Minnesota as an English and French major, and she also speaks Japanese and Tibetan. She is also a published writer and loves making art in her free time. Her stories and poetry (in English and Chinese) have appeared in various journals and magazines in the U.S. and China.
