Doctoral

Ankita Rakhe

Ankita Rakhe (she/her) is a doctoral student in Cohort 2 of the Leaders in Equity and Democracy program. She has been a Student Affairs practitioner for 20 years with a deep investment in diversity, equity and inclusion advocacy; conflict mediation and restorative justice; and leadership coaching. She has previously worked at The Ohio State University; Trinity University (San Antonio, Texas); Santa Clara University and Stanford University. She currently works here at the University of California, Berkeley as the Associate Dean for Student Engagement where she oversees a cluster of...

Alexandrea Creer Kahn

Alexandrea Creer Kahn began her journey as a doctoral student in the Berkeley School of Education's Leaders for Equity and Democracy (LEAD) in 2023. Alexandrea's research areas of focus include equity within teacher education, teacher residencies, and identity affirming teacher education programming for teachers of color.

Alexandrea has led a career focusing on educational equity and justice through several roles in K–12 and higher ed including teacher; principal; district leader; and lecturer for Stanford University's STEP Program. Recent co-authored publications from Alexandrea...

Sarah Goulart

Sarah Goulart is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Berkeley School of Education, specializing in social research methods. As a first-generation student with a strong interest in the transfer student experience, Sarah's research focuses on the challenges in the transfer process. She examines the intersection of institutional policies and AI models aimed at facilitating cross-campus planning.

As a Chancellor's Fellow and a Gardner Fellow, Sarah is committed to fostering equitable educational systems. Drawing from her own experiences and a passion for advocacy, she believes that...

Zohal Shah

Zohal is a doctoral student in Berkeley's Learning Sciences and Human Development program. She fervently believes in including learners, practitioners, and community voices in research design and development. Through a collaborative approach, she aspires to understand how youth develop critical data and digital literacies through social and civic online engagement.

Most recently, Zohal was listed as a member of the 30 under 30 cohort for 2023 in learning leadership by the Learning Guild. Zohal has also supported research at Digital Promise, the Learning, Innovation, and Technology...

Yi Zhou

Yi (Joe) Zhou is an international student from China. He is a PhD student in the Learning Sciences and Human Development cluster at UC Berkeley's School of Education, advised by Professor Elliot Turiel. Yi is hugely interested in the broad topic of morality, and enjoys reading ethical theories and moral psychology. His own research is in the field of moral development.

He is currently looking at individuals' judgments about the desirability of doing the morally right thing and their practical decisions in social situations involving conflict between morality and self-interest. He is...

Yared Portillo

Yared Portillo is a Ph.D. candidate in Learning Sciences and Human Development at UC Berkeley’s School of Education with a focus on Language, Literacy, and Culture. She is a jaranera, leonera, guitarist, poet, and music teacher with over 15 years of experience. Raised in an agricultural Latine immigrant community in Santa María, California, her research interests sit at the intersection of music education, translanguaging pedagogies, and sociocultural approaches to learning. Yared’s research and teaching are influenced by her years as a grassroots immigrant rights community organizer in...

Zoe Silverman

Zoe Silverman is a doctoral candidate in Learning Sciences & Human Development at UC Berkeley. Her research engages video-based interaction analyses of talk, gaze, gesture, touch, space, and movement during facilitated education programs to illuminate how participants — both human and non-human — collaborate to do hands-on learning with objects in museums.

Zoe worked for more than a decade as an education specialist and program coordinator at a variety of arts and cultural institutions in Boston and Los Angeles. In previous lives, she was a high school social studies teacher and...

Weiying Li

Weiying is a Ph.D. candidate in Learning Sciences and Human Development at the UC Berkeley School of Education, with a Designated Emphasis in New Media. Her research focuses on designing and evaluating AI dialogs that support middle school students in learning complex science concepts and engaging with social justice topics in science, such as food access. She uses mixed methods to investigate how iterative prompt design, developed in collaboration with teachers, can deepen students’ knowledge integration. Her work contributes to the development of responsible and adaptive AI tools for...

Vo Ram Yoon

Vo Ram Yoon (him/his) is a doctoral student in the Policy, Politics, and Leadership cluster at the Berkeley School of Education. Ethnically Korean and raised in Bolivia, his passion for advancing social justice and equity in education have been shaped by his international upbringing and witnessing how privilege and marginalization manifest in education from the classrooms of Chicago Public Schools to the private English academies in Tokyo. His research interests include the impact of EdTech on K-12 schools, the racialization of AAPI students, and the relationship between schools and the...

Veronica Valerio

With a distinguished 28-year career in education, Veronica Valerio is a dedicated leader championing academic excellence and the holistic development of all students from TK - 12th grade from Los Angeles to the Bay Area. Her journey includes over a decade of leadership experience as a Spanish bilingual teacher, Literacy Coach, Vice Principal, Principal and in director-level roles within diverse school districts and county offices.

Veronica’s expertise in multilingual and Special Education programs, reflects her unwavering commitment to accelerating outcomes for all learners. She has...