Research Assistants
Listed in alphabetical order by last name
Clara Alvarez Caraveo
Research Assistant
Clara Alvarez Caraveo is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Southern California. She received her Bachelor’s from Cornell University, where she majored in Sociology and minored in Demography, Inequality Studies, and Policy Analysis and Management. Clara’s research interests include immigration, policy, healthcare access, and welfare reform. Her current work focuses on access to the social safety net among immigrant and mixed-status families.
Previously Clara worked as a research analyst at the Urban Institute, where she examined a wide range of research topics, including healthcare workforce diversity, supports for immigrant families, access to the social safety net, and insurance coverage for pregnant and postpartum women. She employs mixed-method approaches to understand how policy patterns need and access to government assistance.
Clara is from Catalina Island, a small island off the coast of southern California. She belongs to the strong and vibrant Mexican immigrant community of the island, for which she dedicates her research career to changing their world for the better.
Nicolas Gutierrez III
Research Assistant
Nicolas Gutierrez III is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the University of Southern California. He holds a Master of Science in Criminal Justice and Criminology from San Diego State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology, Law, and Society from the University of California, Irvine. His research focuses on urban poverty governance, frontline policy implementation, and grassroots organizing around the needs of individuals experiencing homelessness.
At SDSU, Nicolas worked as a research assistant with the Project for Sanitation Justice and the Homelessness Survival Strategies lab, where he explored public restroom access, the criminalization of poverty, racialized policing, and attitudes toward homelessness and homeless-serving facilities. His master’s thesis examined the perspectives and lived experiences of unsheltered residents and mutual aid organizers regarding homeless encampment sweeps in Los Angeles, CA.
Nicolas was born and raised in West Adams, where he continues to live and advocate for housing and mobility justice. As a lifelong Angeleno, he loves his city, acknowledges its flaws, and dedicates his research career to advancing his vision of Los Angeles as a truly “just city” for all. In his free time, Nicolas enjoys solving puzzles, watching Dodgers games, and eating his way through LA.
Shawntae Mitchum
Research Assistant
Shawntae Mitchum (she/her/hers) is a Ph.D student in Sociology at the University of Southern California (USC). She received both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Sociology from California State University San Marcos. Her research interests include anti-Blackness in higher education, the role of student activism on college campuses, state violence by way of law enforcement agents and crime/punishment. Her current work seeks to examine how the racial uprisings of Summer 2020 and the heightened visibility of anti-Black racism in higher education transformed the work of Black educators involved in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts on their campuses.
Prior to attending USC, Shawntae worked as an adjunct faculty member in a community college where she co-created the first campus-based Black Community Ally Training designed to address anti-Black and systemic racism on campus. In the process of training over 200 college faculty, staff and administrators she has collected various forms of qualitative and quantitative data for use in a larger project on the role of allyship in dismantling anti-Black racism in higher education.
As a mother of two, Shawntae lives every day hopeful that the work she does is contributing to making the world a better place for her children to live. She enjoys playing and spending time with her children, riding bikes on the beach, and binge watching Netflix shows in her (very minimal) free time.
As of Fall 2023, Shawntae is one of three co-editors of the Equity Research Institute Blog.
Brandon Saucedo Pita
Research Assistant
Brandon Saucedo Pita (he/him) is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Southern California, with research interests in the intersections of expressive cultural practices, identity formation, and political struggles in Mexican American communities. Raised in the vibrant Brighton Park neighborhood on the Southwest side of Chicago, Brandon draws inspiration from his upbringing and ancestral roots in Michoacán, México.
A graduate of Haverford College, where he was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, Brandon majored in Sociology and double-minored in Growth & Structure of Cities and Latin American, Iberian, and Latina/o Studies. He also completed a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, traveling globally to study the development of Mexican immigrant communities through engagement with artists, cultural centers, and state-led initiatives focused on Mexican musical traditions and other expressive cultural practices.
Brandon’s research focuses on the Los Angeles-area Norteño music scenes, exploring their relationship to collective identity formations, transnationalism, and political expression. He has previously conducted research at Bryn Mawr College and Northwestern University on related topics, including Mexican Chicago’s underground Hip Hop movement. Outside of his academic pursuits, Brandon is an avid videographer and enjoys watching documentaries and sci-fi films, playing Rocket League, editing travel music videos, and producing melodic rap beats.
Dawy Rkasnuam
Research Assistant
Dawy Rkasnuam is a Ph.D student in Sociology at USC. Her research uses intersectionality and the reproductive justice framework to explore how social movements, medicine, and law mediate health and cultural outcomes in the realm of reproductive politics. Her current project examines how reproductive justice activists across different regions respond to changing political climates.
Prior to attending USC, she did research and advocacy work on immigration detention at Detention Watch Network in Washington, DC. She holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park, during which time she conducted immigration research as a research assistant at the UMD Center for International Policy Exchanges and as an intern at the Migration Policy Institute. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from California State University, Los Angeles. Dawy is originally from Bangkok, Thailand but grew up in the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California. Outside of work, she enjoys swimming, attending concerts, and cooking Thai food.
Undergraduate Interns
Verena Im
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Verena Im is an Undergraduate Research Assistant at ERI. Pursuing a major in Law, History, and Culture. She passionately engages in social justice work with the goal of reimagining an equitable society that is rooted in community, joy, love, and justice– concepts she sees as inherently intertwined.
Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Verena grew up in an immigrant household with a diverse cultural background—her mother from Egypt, and her father from Cambodia, all while living in the Midwest. This unique upbringing instilled in her a profound appreciation for community building in every space that she enters. Verena believes seeking genuine connections with others is the foundation for the social justice work we seek. Through collaboration with people from all walks of life, we resist oppressive, divisive systems while embracing a robust network of communion and support. Following this, collaboration breeds transformative thinking, harnessing wisdom and insight from a plethora of people. Having witnessed the impacts of global injustices, genocide, and oppression through her family’s history, she also witnesses the strength in resistance, the beauty of hope, and the value of love.
While Verena acknowledges the significant advancements in research and innovation today, she questions its scope. She asks, who will this research serve in our caste ridden society? We generously pour efforts into technical, medical, and other research, oftentimes, without harmonizing the efforts to promote equitable access to such things. Accordingly, Verena is so excited to contribute to the valuable work ERI does to engage with these critical issues.
Vicky Manwani
Undergraduate Intern
Vicky Manwani is a Senior majoring in Communications at USC Annenberg. She is double minoring in Marketing at the USC Marshall School of Business and Nonprofits, Philanthropy and Volunteerism at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. Her interests lie in tackling complex social issues through effective community programming to make meaningful change.
In her work, she was previously a Program Assistant at the Joint Educational Project, working to pair USC students with South Central elementary school classrooms in service – learning. Formerly a Critical Media Literacy Project member, she also enjoyed teaching high schoolers how to watch movies with a critically thinking eye for representation and stereotypes. Through her participation in programs like these as well as WYSE (Women and Youth Supporting Each Other), NAI (the Neighborhood Academic Initiative), and PEP (the Prison Education Project), she believes in the power of individual – level programs to create tangible effects.
Research wise, Vicky was a part of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, studying diversity and inclusion in entertainment through original research and data collection to tackle inequality in the media. She believes strongly in the impact of physical community service, working as a Friends and Neighbors Day team leader to coordinate Serve – Across LA Days that bring together volunteers from across the city. Born in Los Angeles to immigrant parents, she loves her city very much and hopes to strengthen it into a more equitable place through a career in community engagement.
Outside of her academic pursuits, Vicky is an avid reader, sneaker enthusiast, and loves watching baking shows with her nine year old brother.