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.
Jeanine Erikat
Research Assistant
Jeanine Erikat is a master’s student at the University of Southern California, Sol Price School of Public Policy. She received a Bachelor of Sciences in Public Health Sciences and a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of California, Irvine. She currently works at Women’s Foundation California as a Program Manager with the Dr. Beatriz Maria Solís Policy Institute (SPI) an experiential policy advocacy training program advancing racial, economic, and gender justice throughout the state of California. Prior to the Women’s Foundation, Jeanine served as a Policy Associate at the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA) where she led PANA’s community listening sessions, advocacy campaigns, and redistricting efforts. Jeanine also serves as an Advisory Board member for Majdal Arab Community Center in El Cajon, a grassroots, locally driven institution, committed to uplifting the Arab community in San Diego through political engagement, advocacy, and cultural programming.
Born and raised in the border county of San Diego, Jeanine is passionate about equitable immigrant and refugee resettlement for individuals to thrive. As a daughter of Palestinian immigrants, she advocates for a liberated future for all and enjoys the beach, hiking, and reading.
Ximena Sanchez Martinez
Research Assistant
Ximena Sanchez Martinez is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Southern California. Her research interests include immigration, medical inequity, access to higher education, and qualitative methods. Her current work focuses on how immigration and health policies shape the experiences of Latino communities in Los Angeles County.
Ximena earned her Bachelor’s degree with honors in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity from Stanford University, with a minor in Biology. Her undergraduate honors thesis, The Next Step: Reframing the Vulnerability and Difficulties of Undocumented Students Through Higher Education Milestones, was one of ten projects selected for the Hume Honors Fellowship. Her research was supported by grants from the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and the Stanford Humanities Center, and recognized with the Award for Excellence in Honors Thesis Presentation and the Arturo Islas, Jr. Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement.
Beyond her academic work, Ximena serves as a board member of the Stanford First-Generation and/or Low-Income Alumni Network, supporting first-generation alumni, and as a Dream Project mentor, guiding first-generation high school seniors through the college application process. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her cat Luna, watching anime, scrapbooking, and listening to music.
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.