Yakob Lemma is a Ph.D. student in the K-12 Leadership department within the Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research focuses on Black male mental health, racial disparities in school discipline, and the school-to-prison pipeline. Yakob is especially interested in the intersection between mental health and punitive discipline, and …
Nashya Linares is a doctoral student in the School Psychology program within the Department of Educational Psychology, under the mentorship of Dr. Stephen Kilgus. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from Florida International University. Following graduation, she held several positions—including serving as a middle school teacher and as a research coordinator at Northwestern University. These …
Estela Lopez is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Educational Policy Studies program and is concentrating in Comparative International Education and Global Studies. Estela’s research interests focus on the intersection of race, gender, and class status and inequalities in STEM education and the workforce in the U.S. and Brazil; She looks at non-cognitive factors (identity, …
Zoua Lor is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Department of Counseling Psychology. She is the proud daughter of two refugees, the third of nine children to obtain a bachelor’s degree, and the first in her family to pursue a PhD. Prior to her doctoral studies, she received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with …
Rosanne Luu is a doctoral student in the Curriculum & Instruction department, working under Dr. Nicole Louie. She is interested in taking a participatory methods approach to studying students’ experiences with learning mathematics. Rosanne has also been advised by Dr. Martina Rau, where she researched the instructional practices that support students’ multiple representation use in …
Sam Macksey is a third-year PhD student in the Department of Educational Psychology, within the area of Human Development. Her research interests involve the examination of how children’s understanding of science and math can predict how likely they are to go into STEM careers. Also, to navigate mechanisms driving acquisition of math and science understanding …
Maya Malik (they/them), MSSW, is an incoming doctoral student in the Curriculum and Instruction program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Maya is interested in utilizing arts-based research to co-create informal education programs with queer Black American youth from areas impacted by community violence. They earned their Masters of Science in Social Work from …
Carly McClennahan is pursuing her PhD in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at UW-Madison. Previously, she taught middle and high school English Language Arts and English as a Second Language. Currently, she is interested in teacher and student perspectives on language arts curriculum—particularly curriculum that is culturally sustaining and affirming—as well as how the …
Alex Mikev is an interdisciplinary artist whose conceptual interests include themes related to work as an activity in daily modern life, such as acts of repetitive labor, the meaning of words and images associated with capital production, and broader cultural phenomena such as notions of temporal autonomy and the commodification of time. Mikev uses drawing, …
Estevan Molina is originally from Tempe, AZ, and received his BA in Criminology from The Ohio State University. He continued his education at the University of Cincinnati where he received his JD and Miami University where he received his MA in Social Studies Education. Prior to beginning the PhD in Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis …