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.
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) is a doctoral candidate in the department of Sociology at the University of Southern California with areas of expertise in race/ethnicity and gender. She situates her work in Black sociological traditions where she takes both a qualitative and a historical approach to studying the lived experiences of Black faculty, students, and staff in higher education. Her research project currently under review for publication extends the literature on “racialized equity labor” to interrogate how anti-Black racism manifests in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work in the wake of the summer 2020 racial reckoning. Her co-authored publication “The State of Black Sociology: A Critical Reflection of Joyce Ladner’s Death of White Sociology” highlights the historical exclusion of Black Sociology that extends beyond, but is inclusive of, W.E.B DuBois. The paper urges “mainstream” sociology to investigate its complacency in anti-Black racism and the harm it causes on Black graduate students in the discipline when Black theorists, foremothers and intellectuals are excluded from our academic training. As a higher education scholar, her broader research agenda aims to incorporate theories of Blackness and anti-Blackness with existing perspectives focused on higher education research and policy. Her dissertation examines the role of California community colleges in addressing basic needs, fostering a sense of belonging, and supporting students through equity programming.
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.