Meet the Team
Graduate Student Fellows
Aanchal Setia is a second-year social psychology doctoral student with a passion for exploring the intersection of data science and psychology. Her research focuses on the impact of social inequality on the development of gender identity in individuals. She seeks to unravel the intricate relationship between societal factors and personal experiences. She is excited to be a part of the DSSG program. This exceptional opportunity will enable her to cultivate an interdisciplinary lens through which she can approach her research. Additionally, the program will empower her to sharpen her data science skills and benefit from invaluable mentorship provided by experts in the field.
Kimberly Kreiss majored in economics and minored in mathematics and English at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with high honors in economics. She previously worked as a research assistant and then a data scientist in the Federal Reserve Board’s Division of Consumer and Community Affairs. She used research and data science techniques to inform the Board of conditions facing low- and moderate-income communities. At Princeton, she is concentrating in Economics and Public Policy and pursuing a certificate in Statistics and Machine Learning. She is currently a Graduate Fellow with the Data Driven Social Science Initiative where she provides technical expertise to researchers in the social sciences at Princeton and organizes DDSS events. In the DSSG Program, she is excited to expand her technical skillset, focus on ethical aspects of data science for public policy, and contribute to important work on water scarcity in the Colorado River Basin.
Maia Powell is a Ph.D. candidate in the Applied Mathematics department at the University of California, Merced. Under the advisement of Prof. Arnold Kim, work toward her thesis involves studying the nature of online disagreement and structural differences between different types of speech, as well as the spread of misinformation online. Equity has been a driving force, motivation, and goal throughout her life, and is thus present in both the interests of her personal life and her graduate research. Being born and raised in Colorado, she spent a great deal of time road-tripping and camping with her family in surrounding states. As such, she is thrilled to work on a project concerning the Colorado River Basin!
Violet Huang is currently pursuing her Master’s in Computational Social Science at the University of Chicago. She uses modern techniques to examine social science issues. Her current research is centered on the causal effects of 2022’s abortion-related ballot measures on midterm election outcomes. Violet is keenly interested in the nexus of data, technology, and society and has a strong commitment to advancing public interests through the power of data. This interest prompted her to join the DSSG fellowship, where she is working on the Groundwater Insecurity project. Prior to her Master’s, Violet studied Mathematics and Sociology at New York University, where her undergraduate thesis explored the spatial and temporal constraints faced by female Uber drivers.
Team Leadership
Our team leadership consists of two project leads, a data scientist, and a community engagement specialist:
Project Leads:
Akshay Mehra is an Assistant Professor of UW Earth and Space Sicences and Sameer Shah is an Assistant Professor of UW Environmental and Forest Sciences.
Data Scientist:
Vaughn Iverson is a data scientist with the eScience Institute.
Community Engagement Specialist:
Linda Méndez-Barrientos is currently an Assistant Professor in the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.