Meet our team

Sonya Brooks is a Ph.D. student in the Urban Schooling division at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Her research interests lie at the intersections of education policy, law, and urban schools in an effort to design frameworks to build better educational trajectories for students, specifically Black girls. Brooks is a passionate advocate for the health and well-being of girls in PK-12, the advisor for Beautiful Brown Girls – a community-based program in the Bay Area— and is the recipient of the 2021 Center for the Study of Women Black Feminism Initiative Award for her research on Black women and empowerment.  After graduating from UCLA in 2019 with a Bachelor’s in History and Brown University in 2021 with a Master’s in Urban Education Policy, Sonya has been invited to speak about her work with Black girls and ways of dismantling the challenges they experience in academic and healthcare spaces. Currently, Sonya’s areas of research include the historical importance of intergenerational narratives and storytelling and its impact on the health, well-being, and educational opportunities for girls. In her spare time, Sonya loves roller skating, reading, writing, and spending time with her children doing everything or nothing at all.

Benjamin Hà, a CIRTL@UCLA STAR fellow, is going to be a 4th year PhD Candidate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and has experience working with students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented minorities. He is excited to join and support CEILS as a GSR to help learn more equitable and anti-racist teaching strategies.

Gadise Regassa is a fifth-year doctoral student in the Higher Education and Organizational Change program and is working on her dissertation research around academic burnout, anti-black racism, and the pandemic. During her first four years at UCLA, Gadise worked as a Graduate Ambassador for the Graduate Division Diversity, Inclusion, and Admissions Office, co-founded an academic support group for Black women graduate students, and was a graduate researcher for an EDI and Spencer-funded youth participatory action research project called UCLA BEST. In addition to being a student, Gadise works on the side as an Educational Consultant and just finished a project with Youtube. Before starting her doctoral program, Gadise worked as a Program Administrator for the NYU Center for Multicultural Education and Programs, received her Masters from The Ohio State University in Higher Education and Student Affairs, and graduated with honors from UCSB with a degree in Black Studies and Sociology.

Peter Fisher is a 5^th year PhD candidate in the psychology department where he works with Dr. Tiffany Brannon and Dr. Efrén Pérez. His research focuses on privileged social group dynamics and developing interventions to increase social equity from within privileged social groups. In his current role with CEILS, Peter leads workshops on antiracist education and conducts program evaluation analyses.

Peter has taught courses on research methods, social psychology, and social influence at UCLA. He has taught personality psychology as a visiting lecturer at California State University, Long Beach. He is also a fellow with the Center for Scholars and Storytellers where he leads workshops on healthy gender expression. Before beginning graduate studies at UCLA, Peter worked on social belonging interventions with the College Transition Collaborative at Stanford University.

Nadeeka Karunaratne is a Ph.D. candidate in the Higher Education & Organizational Change program at UCLA. She conducts research on issues of campus sexual and relationship violence, exploring the experiences of minoritized survivors with a focus on healing. She also serves as an Adjunct Instructor in California Lutheran University’s Department of Counselor Education. She previously worked in the Race and Equity Center at the University of Southern California, in the Cross-Cultural Center at UC Irvine, and in UC Irvine’s Campus Assault Resources & Education office. She has a master’s degree in Student Affairs Administration from Michigan State University and a bachelor’s in Chemistry from UC Berkeley. She is also a trauma-informed yoga instructor.

Taylor B. Rogers is a Ph.D. candidate studying Health Policy and Management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. She also holds an M.P.H. in Health Equity and B.S. in Community Health from the University of Maryland, College Park. Taylor’s journey in public health began in community engagement and health education. Frustrated with focusing on individual behavior change, She pursued a M.P.H. and Ph.D to understand and address racism as a structural determinant of health and healthcare. Her research interests include addressing structural racism and discrimination in healthcare delivery, the health workforce, health services research, and medical school training. Taylor is a Student Affiliate of the UCLA Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice & Health.

Kiana Foxx is a second-year doctoral student in the Higher Education and Organizational Change (HEOC) program. She researches underrepresented student experience with a focus on access and equity and is looking forward to helping develop equity-focused curriculum.

Valerie Nguyen is a second-year graduate student pursuing a Masters of Public Health, Health Policy and Management (HPM) on the Policy track at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health (FSPH). Prior to this, she worked in the non-profit field for affordable housing and global health. Valerie is interested in health policy research to improve health outcomes for marginalized groups both nationally and abroad. At FSPH, Valerie serves as a student representative on the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee in the HPM department to continue driving the conversation of equity in public health institutions. Valerie earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with minors in Asian Humanities and Global Health at UCLA. In her spare time, Valerie enjoys reading, hiking, and visiting the ocean.

Emma Tran is a PhD student in the Community Health Sciences department at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. As a CEILS GSR, she is supporting team efforts to develop and facilitate anti-racism teaching workshops among UCLA faculty. Emma’s research draws on critical race and feminist theories to understand how interlocking forms of structural racism manifest in health disparities. She is especially interested in a theory of relational formations of race to clarify how communities not only passively experience health but also oscillate between exercising agency to resist white supremacy and weaponizing ourselves in the pursuit of anti-Blackness and racial capitalism.

As an MPH student at Yale, Emma helped to develop curricula for social justice and health courses both at the School of Public Health and undergraduate College. She is excited to bring lessons from her experiences as a facilitator in the classroom to continue learning how to re-center minoritized voices with her work at CEILS!