Ashraf Haque
Ashraf Haque is a PhD candidate at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, specializing in behavioral public administration and public and nonprofit management. His research asks why governance problems persist when structural solutions are in place, emphasizing the role of cognitive biases beyond rational models. His dissertation, “Technology and the Efficiency–Accountability Trade-Off in Public and Nonprofit Management,” examines whether technology resolves or reproduces these tensions. More broadly, his research interests include administrative decision-making, evidence use, and behavioral tools for policy effectiveness.
Jaleesa Hall
Jaleesa Hall is a PhD student in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at American University. Her research interests include nonprofit emergence and evolution, organizational governance, and entrepreneurship, with a specific focus on nonprofit sustainability, particularly for BIPOC-led organizations. Jaleesa's work examines how nonprofits navigate challenges of financial stability, growth, and leadership to ensure long-term impact in their communities. She is the Founder & CEO of Raising A Village Foundation (RAVF), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to providing intervention programs and community resources to children, youth, and families in education, health, and wellness. Balancing her role as a practitioner and scholar, Jaleesa is committed to bridging theory and practice, advancing the knowledge and strategies needed for nonprofit leaders to thrive.
Kaia Kirk
Kaia Kirk is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Her research interests in race and ethnicity politics, political development, and social movements are situated within the studies of American politics and public policy. Kaia’s dissertation examines how bureaucrats from underrepresented and marginalized racial groups influence policy change through a historical case study on the Black Cabinet, a group of African American advisors who worked under FDR’s presidency. Kaia holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Jackson State University and a Master of Arts in political science from Syracuse University.
Calaia Jackson Franco
Calaia Jackson Franco is a PhD candidate in Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware’s Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy & Administration. Their research examines public sector administrative decision making, with a focus on how organizational contexts and street-level bureaucracy working conditions shape discretion and citizen–state encounters, particularly in education policy. Drawing on theories of street-level bureaucracy, representative bureaucracy, and racialized organizations, Calaia studies how discretionary practices can reproduce or reduce inequities in public service delivery. Jackson Franco is an RWJF Health Policy Research Scholar, an ASPA Founders’ Fellow, and an APPAM Excellence, Equity, and Inclusion student fellow.
Chris Johnston
Chris Johnston is a PhD student in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at American University. His research focuses on the interface between education policy and labor economics. Before starting his PhD, he worked in commercial banking and as a long-term substitute high school math teacher. Chris holds a Master of Science in applied economics and a Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Mingxu (Emma) Li
Mingxu (Emma) Li is a PhD Candidate in the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy at Florida State University. Her research focuses on administrative burden, representative bureaucracy, and policy innovation and diffusion, with particular attention to morality policy. Emma’s work examines how institutional processes and policy design shape bureaucratic behavior and individuals’ access to public services, especially among marginalized populations. She studies how administrative burdens are produced and enforced through the emulation behavior of government actors, how marginalized populations experience state interactions, and how protective policies can mitigate unequal access to public services.
Jesús Sanchez
Jesús Sanchez is a PhD student in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at American University. His research interests include education policy, welfare policy, and public finance. Specifically, he studies how tuition-free college programs influence student behavior and institutional spending, with a focus on enrollment patterns and institutional responses to changing incentives. Jesús holds a Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of New Mexico.
Moriah Sharpe
Moriah Sharpe is a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Justice, Law, and Criminology at American University. Her research employs mixed methods, including econometrics, spatial analysis, survey research, and thematic analysis, to examine issues of procedural justice, intersectional inequality, and human dignity across the criminal justice system. Moriah holds a Master of Science in criminal justice from the University of North Texas and a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of North Carolina. She also serves as a research assistant for the Criminal Justice Innovation Lab at the University of North Carolina.
Jiaen Wu
Jiaen Wu is a Ph.D. candidate in Public Affairs at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington. Bridging public management and computational social science, his research addresses a critical question of modern governance: how do technological innovations and institutional reforms reshape the effectiveness and equity of public service delivery? Applying quasi-experimental methods to large administrative datasets, Jiaen investigates the equity implications of algorithmic governance and the dynamics of representative bureaucracy. Ultimately, his work explores how tools like artificial intelligence interact with bureaucratic discretion to shape downstream equity outcomes and public values.
Chengcheng (Zach) Yue
Chengcheng (Zach) Yue is a PhD candidate in Public Affairs at Rutgers University in Camden. He holds a Master of Science in Public Affairs/Community Development from Rutgers University and an MSc in Global Prosperity from University College London. Zach’s research intersects public finance, sustainable finance, community development, and policy analysis. His dissertation evaluates the efficacy of New Jersey’s Urban Enterprise Zones as a recession buffer, leveraging large datasets and econometric methods to analyze local heterogeneity at the ZIP code level. He is committed to generating data-driven insights that bridge government fiscal and economic policy instruments with equitable community growth.