Directory

Dr. Adams-Santos is a qualitative researcher who centers questions of sexuality, intimacy, and belonging in the digital era; in particular, how individuals navigate the racial, gender, and sexual politics of digital and urban landscapes in their search for intimacy and community.

Dr. Mara Cecilia Ostfeld is the research director at the Center for Racial Justice, and an associate research scientist in the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. In addition, Mara is a faculty lead at the Detroit Metro Area…

Watkins-Hayes is an internationally-recognized scholar and expert on HIV/AIDS; urban poverty; social policy; and racial, class, and gender inequality. Her work illuminates social problems of great interest to scholars, communities, and policymakers. She works at the intersection of sociology, African American Studies, and public policy. Her work analyzes the impact of the HIV epidemic on women and the growth of the HIV safety net.

As a racial justice lawyer, historian, organizer, and writer, Dr. Amanda Alexander has dedicated her career to building the power of community-based movements for social change. She is the founder and former Executive Director of the Detroit Justice…

Charlene A. Carruthers (she/her) is a writer, filmmaker, community organizer, and BlackStudies PhD candidate at Northwestern University. A practitioner of telling morecomplete stories, her work interrogates Black governance, Black and…

Kristina Fullerton Rico is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Racial Justice at the Ford School. Her research examines the social and emotional impacts of U.S. immigration policies that lead unauthorized immigrants and their families to endure…

Mo Torres (MPP ‘15) is a Michigan Society of Fellows (MSF) postdoctoral scholar and assistant professor at the Ford School and in Sociology (LSA) for a three-year term. His research and teaching interests are in political economy, urban politics, and…

Bianca D.M. Wilson, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Welfare at the Luskin School of Public Affairs and an affiliate faculty member of the California Center for Population Research at UCLA. Her research explores the…

Katrina (they/she) brings experience in community organizing and a dedication to developing accessible communication strategies to advance the Ford School's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts.

Angela (she/her) joined the Ford School in April 2022. She handles event planning, scheduling, and the center's finances.

Jasmine Banks is a Ph.D. candidate in Psychology at the University of Michigan, examining in the intricacies of digital media use within the Black community. Her research sits at the intersection of race, identity, and culture, offering a nuanced…

Erykah Benson is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology researching the impacts of racism on technology and the platform gig economy. Her work focuses on Black people’s access to and usage of technology as consumers and producers. She is a…

Catalina Anampa Castro is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Catalina’s research draws on survey and administrative data to study the mechanisms of population-level racial and socioeconomic inequalities in…

Franshelly M. Martínez-Ortiz is a PhD student in Political Science at Gerald Ford School of Public Policy. Her research focuses on broad topics of Race and Ethnicity, Political Behavior and American Public Opinion. She is currently working on…

Natalia Rice is a first year MPP candidate and a native of Buffalo, NY. She graduated summa cum laude from Syracuse University with a B.A. in English and Sociology. Natalia came to the Ford School with a passion for studying public policy at the…

Ignangeli Salinas-Muñiz is a Ph.D. candidate in the Political Science Department at the University of Michigan and an NSF Graduate Fellowship Program Fellow. Her research centers representation, accountability, and decolonial possibility in…

Jasmine Simington is a joint doctoral student in Sociology and Public Policy. As a CRJ Graduate Research Fellow, she writes about attitudes towards reparations across Southeast Michigan. She has additional research on racial inequalities in housing…

Malcolm is a PhD student in the joint Public Policy and Economics doctoral program. Malcolm studies the economics of enacting justice for systemic violence (e.g. mass incarceration) and applications of intersectionality in understanding collective…