Doctoral Fellowship

Tremaine Sails-Dunbar is a fourth-year PhD student at the University of South Carolina, where he studies the intersection of homelessness, mental illness risk, criminality, and the social and structural level factors that influence these outcomes. His work applies a mixed-methods approach grounded in moral reasoning to examine how policy design and implementation shape outcomes for vulnerable populations. Tremaine’s primary policy interests include homelessness and housing stability, behavioral health and mental illness, social service utilization, and economic mobility. He is particularly interested in how integrated service models, such as housing combined with health and social supports, can improve long-term outcomes and reduce system fragmentation.

Joyce Kim is a PhD candidate in sociology and higher education at the University of Pennsylvania, with interests in the policy areas of postsecondary education policy, employment, economic mobility, and young people. Her research employs qualitative methods to study how undergraduates navigate the transition from college to careers at two higher education institutions in New York City. Her previous graduate school research, published as a peer-reviewed article, explores how students’ racial and class backgrounds influence the moral aspects of their career choices at an elite university. Before beginning her PhD, she studied civic adaptation among North Korean defectors, worked at a nonprofit providing job skills training, and conducted research at a business school.