Meetings
If you are a student at NYU or Harvard, you can schedule time to meet with me through Calendly.
MA students may only block one office-hour slot.
PhD students may block up to two consecutive office-hour slots.
If you need me to review any material beforehand, please send it at least 24 hours before our meeting by email.
Reference letters
Eligibility
Any student who does well on one of my courses may request a reference letter for graduate studies or employment via e-mail.
Materials
Students requesting a reference letter should provide me with:
A spreadsheet of all graduate programs/jobs for which the letter is sought
For graduate programs, please include the name of the university, the name of the school/department, the name of the program/degree, and the application deadline.
For jobs, please include the name of the organization, the name of the sub-division/department, the name of the position, and the application deadline.
The personal statements (if applying for graduate studies) or letters of interest (if applying to employment) to be submitted;
An up-to-date curriculum vitae; and
Instructions on how to submit the reference letter for each graduate program/job.
For graduate programs, students should submit all of the above after having the application systems email me their requests for letters.
Timeline
Students requesting a reference letter should submit such materials at least two weeks prior to the deadline. Requests that do not meet this deadline may not be honored, except for extraordinary circumstances.
Doctoral students
Sorana Acris | Doctoral student, International Education, New York University
Sorana Acris is a doctoral candidate in the International Education program. Her research focuses on the impacts of education in post-conflict, divided societies on educational inequalities, nation building, social cohesion, and identity development. Sorana is supporting Prof. Alejandro Ganimian on a randomized controlled trial evaluating the impact of a civic education program in public primary schools in Liberia.
Prior to joining NYU, Sorana worked with the Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) team at the World Bank and as a management consultant in the education sector. She holds an M.A. in International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in Political Science from Duke University.
Berta Bartoli | Doctoral student, Psychology and Social Intervention, New York University
Berta is currently a doctoral student in the Psychology and Social Intervention program. She is also an IES-PIRT fellow. Her research focuses on how children’s environments affect their motivation for learning. Her work is most specifically concerned with how educational systems can be gamed by actors within the educational ecosystem (e.g., parents, teachers, and students), and how those system-gaming behaviors can affect student outcomes in the short- and long-term.
She is currently assisting Prof. Alejandro Ganimian on a randomized controlled trial investigating the impact of a text message intervention on absenteeism in Mendoza, Argentina. Within the large-scale project, she is supporting a qualitative study to better understand parents’ and students’ perspectives of absenteeism. Berta is also working on a project investigating the equity of pre-k centers’ assignments from the Pre-K for All lottery application system in New York City.
Prior to joining NYU, Berta worked as a research assistant at Sharon Wolf’s RIPPLE lab in the University of Pennsylvania on projects related to parental engagement practices and mental health in West Africa. She holds a master’s degree in Statistics, Measurement, and Assessment from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics and International Affairs from Northeastern University, where she was a University Scholar. Berta is fluent in English, Spanish, and French.
Arja Dayal | Doctoral student, International Education, New York University
Arja Dayal is a doctoral student in the International Education program. She broadly focuses on evaluation of innovative educational policies and programs. She is primarily interested in child protection, accountability, and inclusive education in low-, and middle-income contexts (especially, Africa and South Asia). During her doctoral study, she plans to focus on supply-side and demand-side barriers that impact the short-term and long-term outcomes of children with disabilities and out-of-school children by using quantitative and mixed methods. Currently, she is supporting Prof. Alejandro Ganimian on an efficacy trial of phone-based early childhood education program in India, and Prof. Elisabeth King on a randomised evaluation of art-based approach to reduce partisan bias in the United States.
Prior to joining NYU, she worked on multiple experimental and quasi-exerimental evaluations in Liberia, Sierra-Leone, and Timor-Leste with Innovations for Poverty Action. She has also worked with Liberian Ministry of Education to draft the first National Learning Assessment Policy and Framework. As a Teach for India Fellow (2012-14), she embedded herself as a second and third-grade teacher in a low-income public school working on student outcomes and engaging with parents, school management, and the community on projects.
She holds a master’s in Public Administration in Development Practice from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, and a bachelor’s (honors) in Economics from Hindu College, University of Delhi.
Trenel Francis-Porter | Doctoral student, Psychology and Social Intervention, New York University
Trenel is an advanced-year doctoral student in the Psychology and Social Intervention program. Her research interests include understanding how parental academic socialization practices influence adolescents' academic outcomes for low-income, racial-ethnic minority families. She has contributed to literature on immigrant families' access to health and human services, as well as literature on hook up behavior and emerging adults' relationship attitudes and expectations. Trenel is a Caribbean American woman, originally from Staten Island, NY. She holds a Bachelor's of Science with Honors degree in Human Development and minor in Education from Cornell University.
Jessica Siegel | Doctoral student, Psychology and Social Intervention, New York University
Jessica Siegel is a doctoral student in the Psychology and Social Intervention Program at New York University. Her research interests include investigating the impacts of poverty on child development and how policies and systems can effectively and equitably serve children and families. Jessica is currently working with Profs. Elise Cappella and Pamela Morris on a research-practice partnership with the New York City Department of Education to support their expansion of universal pre-kindergarten, as well as to understand the experiences of pre-k teachers, school leaders, and caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the mentorship of Profs. Alejandro Ganimian and Elise Cappella, Jessica is investigating whether school climate can ameliorate disparities in access to high-quality pre-kindergarten for Black and Latine children.
Prior to NYU, Jessica received her Bachelor of Science in Child Development and Cognitive Studies and her M.Ed. in Child Studies, with a specialization in Poverty and Intervention, from Vanderbilt University. After graduating, she worked at NYU School of Medicine on ParentCorps, a family-focused, school-based intervention that aims to strengthen family engagement and support parents and teachers to create high-quality learning environments.
Former doctoral students
Andreas de Barros | Assistant Professor of Educational Policy and Evaluation - UC Irvine
Sharnic Djaker | Post-doctoral Fellow, What Works Hub for Global Education - Oxford University
Maya Escueta | Post-doctoral Associate, Center for Child and Family Policy - Duke University
Saloni Gupta | Post-doctoral Fellow, Stanford King Center on Global Development - Stanford University / Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Education, Brown University
Samuel Hansen Freel | Senior Research Director, A—B
Amrita Mitchell-Krishnan | Post-doctoral Fellow, Children's Health of Orange County (CHOC) Children's Hospital
Zezhen (Michael) Wu | Behavioral Scientist, The Agency Fund
Former research managers
Tanay Balantrapu | Consultant, World Bank
Rashmi Bhat | Project Manager, J-PAL South Asia
Urmi Bhattacharya | Country Director, Fortify Health
Nicolás Buchbinder | Global Education Monitoring Report Fellow, UNESCO
Krishanu Chakraborty | Manager, ID Insight
María Cortelezzi | National Director of Educational Assessment, Ministry of Education, Culture, Science, and Technology of Argentina
Nandini Gupta | Research and Training Manager, J-PAL South Asia
Putul Gupta | Senior Research Manager, J-PAL South Asia
Former research associates
Aditi Bhomwick | Candidate in Master of Public Policy, Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs - Princeton University
Iti Bhargava | Candidate in Master of International and Development Economics, Yale University
Shobitha Cherian | Research Associate, J-PAL South Asia
Smit Gade | Data and Research Manager, Good Business Lab
Roshni Khincha | Consultant, World Bank
Rashmi Menon | Candidate in Master of Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government - Harvard University
Sivaranjani Sivamohan | Program Manager, Central Square Foundation
Anuja Venkatachalam | Data Journalist, DataLEADS
Former research consultants
Riddhima Mishra | Candidate in Master of Public Policy, Harris School of Public Policy - University of Chicago
Mustufa Patel | Research Consultant, J-PAL South Asia
Krishna Srinivasan | Pre-doctoral Fellow, Department of Economics - Harvard University