The GSP Doctoral Fellowship brings Ph.D. candidates pursuing independent, self-directed research on economic and social problems affecting low-income Americans to our New York City, Oakland, CA, and Washington, DC, offices.

Applications have closed for the summer 2024 fellowships.

 

What It’s Like to Be a Doctoral Fellow at MDRC

In this two-minute video, Gabrielle Smith Finnie, a doctoral candidate at Old Dominion University, recounts her summer as a 2023 Gueron Doctoral Fellow. She is studying the experiences of Black justice-involved individuals pursuing higher education after justice involvement.

2024 Doctoral Fellows

Andrew Johnson is a doctoral candidate in the education policy PhD program at Michigan State University. He is an education policy researcher with experience in quantitative and mixed methods, including causal evaluation and policy analysis. His areas of research span PK-16 and include the economics of education, decision-making, and student success and persistence. For his dissertation, Johnson is conducting an evaluation and critical policy analysis of an institution’s college retention grant. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Missouri and a master’s degree in education policy and leadership from American University. Before his career in education policy research, he was a middle school math teacher.

Da’Quallon Smith is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research focuses on the psychological foundations of the social and political forces that drive and maintain societal hierarchies and deepen inequality. In his doctoral study, Smith unravels the intricate layers of gentrification and its challenges for the residents. He zeroes in on the repercussions of contemporary urban transformations in historically marginalized neighborhoods, probing into their effects on the perceptions and attitudes of both entrenched and newer residents. Smith is also an urban planner who has done consulting in the US, Brazil, and China.

Previous Doctoral Fellows

2023
Pierre Lucien
Gabrielle Smith Finnie

2019
Brittany Fox-Williams

2018
Bailey Brown
Nidia Ruedas-Gracia

2017
Linsey Edwards
Tommy Wu

2016
Raul Chavez
Rosalia Zarate

2015
Mariana Horta-Campos

2014
Maria “Toni” Castro-Cosio
Megan Madison

2013
Nancy Acevedo-Gil
Justina Kamiel Grayman

2012
Jovonne Bickerstaff
Delia Kimbrel
Awilda Rodriguez

2011
Micaela Mercado
Miya Warner

2010
Cecilia Speroni
Christian Villenas

2009
Daniella Pineda
Adriana Villavicencio