Research Fellows

Abby is a doctoral student at UC Berkeley. Abby’s research explores the implementation of P-12 education policies in California. More specifically, she is interested in districts’ governance structures that support policy implementation and how teachers, students, and families experience new policies. Combining organizational and critical theory as disciplinary frameworks, she uses critical policy analysis to contextualize the framing, implementation, and analysis of education policy.

Abby’s current research projects include following how districts are spending COVID stimulus dollars and how counties and districts are implementing universal prekindergarten programs.

Prior to graduate school, Abby worked as a secondary mathematics teacher and taught female and non-binary students how to code during her summer breaks. She received her BS from the University of Southern California and an MA from Columbia University.

Ja’Nya Banks is a second-year PhD student at the University of California Berkeley, studying education with a focus on Policy, Politics and Leadership. Ja’Nya’s research explores the politics of school reform in marginalized communities, by centering the relationships between teachers, parents and students. She studies how organizational theory can be expanded to capture informal ties between stakeholders that exist outside of typical governing processes, in hopes of revitalizing community oriented policy. Additionally, she is interested in examining the nuances of Special Education policy, and how arguments around identification aid or inhibit resource access for racially marginalized families and their white counterparts.

Prior to her time at Berkeley, Ja’Nya worked as a Special Education teacher and case manager, and a workshop facilitator on utilizing personal identity to instill anti-racist practices for in-service teachers, lecturers and faculty members. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Special Education from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an M.Ed. in Education Policy from the University of Virginia.

Cindy is a graduate student at Fresno State University, where she is currently working towards obtaining her Master’s degree in early childhood education. Her research interests include childhood trauma, social-emotional, literacy, and language. She plans to contribute her knowledge and skills to help the families and young children of the Central Valley and develop the necessary abilities to thrive. Cindy is a lifelong learner of child development, early childhood education, and inclusive and diverse practices, as she believes it is pertinent to understanding young children’s complex and unique backgrounds, cultures, languages, abilities, and struggles.