Our Team
Current
Lisa Lopez-Escobar
LiLo (she/her) is a PhD candidate in the Teaching and Learning, Policy, and Leadership department with a specialization in Urban Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Having spent her early professional career working in after-school spaces with Latinx immigrant youth, her research seeks to create spaces of belonging, healing and joy for adolescent newcomers in schools.
Dr. Sophia Rodriguez
Sophia Rodriguez is the founder and director of the ImmigrantEdNext Lab..She has researched urban schools and education policy for over a decade. Her research specifically focuses on Latinx immigrant youth and their experiences of school and society. She has also evaluated and worked in consultation with community-based organizations to support programs for youth across the country. Prior to her work as a researcher and professor, she was a public school teacher in Chicago and New York City.
Melissa Ortiz
Melissa (she/hers) is a Ph.D. student in the Sociology of Education program at NYU Steinhardt. She is interested in exploring the contemporary educational experiences of immigrant-origin Latinx students attending schools in the suburbs undergoing rapid demographic change. Having attended schools and worked with Latinx youth in suburban areas, she is passionate about working with Latinx students to achieve their educational goals.
Past Team Members
Katya Murillo
Katya (she/hers/ella) is a PhD candidate in the International Education Policy program in the College of Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her academic interests include education in conflict and crisis settings as well as migration and education. More specifically, her research focuses on schooling for unaccompanied (im)migrant children in US shelters/facilities.
Staci Pippin-Kottkamp
Staci Pippin-Kottkamp is a PhD candidate in the Teaching and Learning, Policy and Research department with a specialization in Urban Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. She has over 20 years of experience in education as an ELL instructor, literacy specialist, and school librarian and has also worked in refugee resettlement in various capacities. Her research interests include adolescent newcomers´ transition to college and employment.
Gisell Ramírez
Gisell is a PhD student in the Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership department with a specialization in Urban Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Gisell has worked with elementary and high school students in local school districts. Her research interests include immigration, newcomer students in high school classrooms, and community partnerships.
Gabrielle (Gabi) Cabrera Wy
Gabrielle (Gabi) is a 4th year PhD candidate in the Criminology and Criminal Justice department at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research interests include the immigrant adaptation experience across the social contexts of family, school, peers, and neighborhood, the relationship between cultural frames/scripts and behavioral outcomes for children of immigrants, and the explanatory mechanisms which may facilitate the immigrant generational disparities in antisocial behavior.
Joyce Koo
Joyce is a PhD student in the Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership department at the University of Maryland, College Park. She has taught in both elementary and college classrooms. Her research interests include the impact of academic transitions on students, particularly those from marginalized and under-represented populations.
Kavitha Kasargod-Staub
Kavitha (she/her) is a third year Phd Student in the Teaching and Learning, Policy, and Leadership department at the University of Maryland, College Park with a focus on Policy. Kavitha comes to her Phd work after 12 years in the classroom as social studies teacher and instructional coach. Kavitha’s research centers around K-12 education and national Left political social movements.