Graduate Student

Emely Lugo

Emely N. Lugo (she/ella) is a second-year doctoral student in the School Psychology Program at UC Berkeley's School of Education (BSE).


Before joining BSE, Emely pursued her studies in Psychology and Child Development at California State University, San Bernardino. Her research investigated the efficacy of computerized cognitive training in supporting the development of critical cognitive functions such as working memory, cognitive flexibility, and processing speed, which are vital for academic success. She also explored the role of motivation in the...

Nicole Cedillo

Nicole Cedillo is an accomplished educator, researcher, and advocate for equitable education with a rich background in history, feminist studies, and English language development. With a Master of Arts in History from Tufts University and a Bachelor of Arts in Feminist Studies and History from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Nicole has seamlessly woven academic knowledge with a passion for creating inclusive learning environments.

The journey into education began with Nicole earning a Single Subject English Language Arts certification from the Reach Institute for School...

Pa Vue

Pa N. Vue or Paj Hnub Vwj was born in Thailand and came to the United States in 1990. She has nearly a decade of experience working with high school and college students as an academic advisor and writing center coordinator. She is currently a PhD candidate in the School of Education at UC Berkeley and is also doing a Designated Emphasis in Indigenous Language Revitalization. Her research interests are in Hmong language reclamation, literacy, and indigenous knowledge production. She explores connections between literacy, language, and creativity, broadly conceived, and works toward...

Nathaly Santos

Nathaly Santos is a doctoral student within the Policy, Politics, and Leadership cluster at the Berkeley School of Education. Her research centers Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and the ways in which colleges and universities adopt and embody an HSI identity at the organizational level.


These days, Nathaly is interested in exploring how HSIs operate as racialized organizations. She studies the impact of both individual and institutional factors that shape systemic policies and practices aimed at improving Latine/x student success rates and addressing...

Joy Esboldt

Joy Esboldt is a doctoral candidate in the Critical Studies of Race, Class, and Gender cluster at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Education. Her research focuses on teachers’ learning about race, equity, and power as it intersects with gender and cultural politics. Joy’s work engages a multilevel qualitative analysis, locating the work of teachers and conceptualizations of racial justice within interactional, organizational, and sociopolitical environments. Joy’s dissertation examines the co-construction and enactment of equity discourses across multiple sites of teacher...

Cristina Méndez

Cristina S. Méndez (she/ella) is a Chicana educator, scholar, and poet. Her research focuses on the lived experiences and sense-making of Maya Mam women lideresas who organize for the vitality of their language, culture, and their communities across the United States, México, and Guatemala. Through her research and other collaborations, Cristina is committed to centering Indigenous, feminist, and decolonial epistemologies and methodologies. Cristina also engages in collaborative research with Mam community members on designing pedagogical resources for language reclamation, accessible at...

Jennie Greenstein

Jennie Greenstein is a 5th year PhD candidate in the School Psychology Program in the Berkeley School of Education. She is currently completing her full-time doctoral internship at the Colorado School Psychology Internship Consortium in Denver, CO. Jennie’s dissertation is titled Coordination of Services Teams: A Bridge for Siloed School-Based Mental Health Supports.

Specializations and Interests

Social-Emotional Learning; School-Based Mental Health

Sara Stone

With nearly 30 years in education, Sara Stone has held roles as an elementary and middle school teacher, principal, network superintendent, assistant superintendent, and currently, superintendent of Albany Unified School District. Throughout her career, she has prioritized creating safe, inclusive, and academically rigorous environments that empower students for success. Sara is an adaptive, empathetic leader who values data-driven decision-making, strong communication, and relational skills to drive continuous improvement. She is a hands-on leader, spending significant time in schools and...

Ratih Ayu Apsari

Ratih is a PhD student in the Learning Sciences and Human Development at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on promoting epistemic diversity and cultural funds of knowledge in students by integrating culturally situated embodied cognition into mathematics education. Currently, she is working on the Geometry Resources in Dance (GRiD) project, a gridded floor mat to objectify tacit attentional anchors for movement coordination into auxiliary lines for geometric practice.


Originally from Bali, Ratih formal background is in mathematics education, and she...

Julissa Navas

Julissa is a doctoral candidate in the School Psychology program at UC Berkeley. She was born and raised in Southern California to two hard-working immigrant parents from Mexico and El Salvador. Julissa completed her undergraduate studies at UC Irvine and graduated with honors with a BA in Psychology and Education Sciences. She later received her MA in Education at UC Berkeley.


Her graduate research broadly examines some of the psychosocial factors linked to students’ academic achievement, including academic self-concept, motivation, expectations, interpersonal relationships,...