People Type: Graduate Researchers

Aziz Awaludin is a graduate assistant and liaison of Study A in the CALL-ECL Project at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER). He is a Ph.D. student in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison with the Fulbright Fellowship of the U.S. Department of State. He obtained an undergraduate degree (B.Ed.) …

Talgat Bainazarov is a Ph.D. candidate in the K–12 Educational Administration program at Michigan State University. His research focuses on understanding and measuring how principals’ beliefs influence their leadership practices to create equitable learning environments for diverse students and families. He employs both qualitative and quantitative methods in his research. He currently works as a graduate …

Arati Bapat (she/her) is a teacher educator and researcher. She is a doctoral candidate and an instructor in the elementary education program at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is a researcher on the CALL for Equity Centered Leadership (CALL/ECL) project.  Arati’s work examines how teachers make sense of various pedagogical …

Yeonsoo Choi is a Ph.D. student in the Sociology and Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her current research interests include equity-centered data use, sociology of teaching, critical policy analysis, and mixed-method research. She earned her B.A. and M.A. in Education from Yonsei University, South Korea.

Ghipsel Cibrian is a nonprofit professional and current master’s in Education Policy candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her current interests are school choice models, resource allocation in the education sector, and how data informs decision-making from the school-site to the national level. Before Teachers College, Ghipsel worked with rural schools in Peru and, most recently, …

Laura Davalos is a second-year doctoral student in the Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her academic focus is on creating equitable education policies within school choice systems that empower students of all backgrounds. Laura’s research interests are school choice admissions processes, desegregation policies and culturally responsive practices.

Carl (CJ) Greer is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Greer’s youth worker and educator background in Milwaukee and Detroit contexts inspired him to pursue doctoral training to become a community-based tenure-track faculty member who examines how the relationship between schools and community-based education spaces can …

Xinyu Guan is a doctoral student in Education Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education. She holds a B.A. with a double major in Business Administration and Economics from McMaster University, Canada, and an M.A. in Global Higher Education from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her current research focuses on school finance, …

Lisa Hennessey (M.S., she/her/hers) is a mathematics teacher educator at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, pursuing her purpose to ensure that everyone is seen and valued as mathematical by their peers, teachers, community, family, and self. She is a doctoral student in the UW–Madison Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. She is a researcher on the …

Neven Holland is a Ph.D. student in urban schooling at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests focus on investigating the sociopolitical context and micro-level issues within schools and classrooms that influence Black and Brown students’ educational experiences and outcomes. Previously, he served as a tenured elementary teacher for Memphis-Shelby County Schools in Tennessee. …