About
Team Photo
Individual Bios
Jennie Romich
Associate Professor, School of Social Work
University of Washington
Jennie Romich is a Professor of Social Welfare at the UW School of Social Work and Faculty Director of the West Coast Poverty Center. Romich’s research focuses on poverty, low-paid workers, and families’ interactions with public policy. Her recent projects include mixed-method evaluations of the Seattle Paid Safe and Sick Time Ordinance and $15 minimum wage. She co-leads the national effort on “Reducing Extreme Economic Inequality” for the American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare’s Grand Challenges Initiative and co-chairs a national research network on “Poverty, Employment, and Self-Sufficiency” through the U.S. Collaborative of Poverty Centers. As the principal investigator of the Washington Merged Longitudinal Administrative Data and DSSG ’21 alum, Romich is excited to again work with the DSSG summer project as a way of learning more about data science techniques applicable to large-scale administrative data set.
Jessica Godwin
Statistical Demographer + Training Director, Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology
University of Washington
Jessica is a Statistical Demographer and the Training Director for the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology (CSDE) at the University of Washington. Their roles include support and training for CSDE students pursuing demographic and population research and providing consulting in statistical and demographic methods to CSDE faculty affiliates and students. Their broad research interests include demographic methods, Bayesian spatiotemporal methods, survey statistics, and the places where all of those things overlap. Jessica is passionate about teaching, mentorship, and research applications that improve the lives of people and communities, all things fundamental to DSSG! Jessica received her Ph.D. from the Department of Statistics at the UW and is a former CSDE Trainee and Fellow. Born and raised in Alabama, they received their M.S. in Statistics and B.S. in Actuarial Science at Auburn University. War eagle!
Eliot Stanton
Recent Graduate, Data Science and Analytics
Simmons University
Eliot (they/them) is a new graduate of Simmons University in Boston, where they studied data science. They enjoy conducting all manners of data exploration and visualization, especially using R. While at Simmons, Eliot also completed a theoretical gender studies thesis entitled “Binaries in Binary: Harmful Consequences and Radical Possibilities of Technology for Trans Liberation” and presented their work as a Keynote Speaker at the Simmons Undergraduate Symposium. During part of a COVID gap year, Eliot worked as a Civic Digital Fellow at the U.S. Census Bureau, and they have also interned at Bluebonnet Data and Bank of America. Eliot was initially interested in DSSG for the opportunity to apply technical skills in service of a meaningful cause, and they are extremely excited to work on the challenge of tracking poverty through a complex dataset. They’re also looking forward to close teamwork, mentorship, and engaging with ethical issues.
Zhaowen Guo
Ph.D. Candidate, Political Science
University of Washington
Zhaowen Guo is a Ph.D. candidate in political science and a consultant at the Center for Social Science Computation and Research (CSSCR) at the University of Washington. Prior to joining the University of Washington, she holds a master’s degree in political science at Columbia University with Chinese Government Scholarship, and a bachelor’s degree in political science at Fudan University. Her research agenda has centered around how information and technology impact public discourses, government accountability, and political behavior. Her dissertation is exploring how a surveillance society takes root and its consequences on welfare provision and political participation in China. She is looking forward to participating in the DSSG program to leverage her inter-disciplinary experiences in data science and social science in solving real-world problems.
Betelhem Muno
Master of Public Health Student in Epidemiology
School of Public Health, University of Washington
Betelhem Muno is an incoming Master of Public Health (MPH) student based out of the department of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health at University of Washington (UW). She is excited to start in the fall with the hopes of focusing on maternal and child health through an epidemiological lens. She just completed her undergraduate degree at Haverford College with a major in Environmental Studies (focusing on Environmental Health) and a minor in Health Studies. Her understanding of the ways data impacts health policies and health outcomes-in all aspects of life-pushed her to start taking data science courses to become equipped with the analytical tools needed to interpret and comprehend data. She intentionally focuses all of her work on health issues that impact under-resourced communities, especially issues that impact Black communities both in the U.S. and globally. Her interest in the intersection of data science and public health issues, and seeing the ways economical health influences every other form of health prompted her to join DSSG and her project, respectively.
Ihsan Kahveci
Ph.D. Student, Sociology
University of Washington
İhsan is a third-year doctoral student in Sociology at the University of Washington and an affiliated student at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. He holds an MA in Sociology from the University of Washington and a BA in Management from Bogazici University, Turkey. İhsan’s research focuses on the intersection of public health and social networks. His mixed methods research integrates computational sociology, demography and social epidemiology. His dissertation focuses on vaccine-hesitancy and health misinformation, especially in non-Western contexts. His work also considers the religious and political dynamics behind adherence to COVID-19 public health measures. İhsan is extremely motivated to use his scientific knowledge and data science skills to solve real-life social problems. DSSG and WMLAD are excellent initiatives to pursue this goal, and he is excited to be part of these dynamic teams. In his free time, İhsan enjoys stand-up comedy and swing dancing. He also performs irregularly at open mics.
Acknowledgements
Sponsors: eScience Institute, UW, Micron
WMLAD funders: Arnold Ventures, Center for Equitable Growth, JPB Foundation/Institute for Poverty Research, City of Seattle, WorkRise, UW Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology
Thank you to Jim Mayfield, Taylor Danielson, and Lisa Nicoli, Washington State DSHS; Callie Freitag and Lizzy Pelletier, UW; Nicole Keenan, researcher and activist; and Phil Hurvitz, UW Data Collaborative.