Doctoral Fellowship

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.