Current Fellowship Recipients

Judith A. Shinogle Memorial Fellowship

Shadi Seyedi (2024)

Shadi Seyedi is a Ph.D. student with a specialization in Evaluation and Analytical Methods. Shadi holds a B.S. degree in economics from Ferdowsi University in Iran and an M.S. degree in Applied Economics and Econometrics from the University of Delaware. Additionally, Shadi serves as a graduate assistant, collaborating closely with Dr. Bennett on their research.

Shadi’s primary passion lies at the intersection of health policy evaluation, where they explore the causal effects of health policies by integrating advanced econometrics and machine learning methods for comprehensive evaluation. They are driven by their dedication to researching and promoting positive change in healthcare outcomes and access to quality care for vulnerable, marginalized, and underserved communities.

Inspired by their experience with U.S. health services as an immigrant, Shadi’s current research project examines how Medicaid expansion under the ACA influences the health and healthcare access of foreign-born individuals in the United States.

Renato DiPentima Fellowship

Grace De Oro (Fall 2023)

Grace De Oro is a Ph.D. Candidate on the Public Management track in the School of Public Policy. Grace’s research is focused on nonprofit resilience through an organizational management lens. Currently she is working on a case study about emergency management nonprofits’ experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic as well as what resilience looks like in their organization. Grace is also the Graduate Student Association President for the FY 2023-2024 school year. The fellowship provides Grace the financial means to attend the 2023 ARNOVA Annual Conference where she has been invited to present her case study titled, Bouncing Forward: Exploring Nonprofit Resilience during COVID-19 through Emergency Management.

Margaret Kaii-Ziegler (Fall 2023)

Margaret Kaii-Ziegler is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Public Management track working with Dr. Edwards. Her dissertation is titled, The Role of Value Alignment in Collaborative Governance: A Case Study of a Metropolitan Planning Organization. Her work proposes a new methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of a regional governance body and identifies underlying factors that can inhibit true collaboration leading to innovation. She has a B.S. in Landscape Architecture, a Master or Regional Community Planning, and 30+ years of experience working in government.

Doha Chibani (Spring 2023)

Doha is a mental health clinician and a Ph.D. Candidate within the Health Policy track. Her research explores Federal and State policies that regulate insurance coverage for behavioral health and the role they play in access to care, especially for the economically disenfranchised and people with marginalized identities. Doha currently runs a joint UMB-UMBC SAMHSA grant funded research and training clinic providing early identification and intervention services to youth and young adults at risk of developing serious mental illness.

Jennifer Walsh (Spring 2023)

Jennifer Walsh is a UMBC School of Public Policy (Health Policy track) Ph.D. candidate pursuing her dream of completing her degree program. Her dissertation is focused on the Opioid Epidemic, particularly how Naloxone distribution programs are implemented in Maryland. She believes her research will be impactful in helping those programs target the populations who are most at risk of opioid overdoses and equipping them with the appropriate Naloxone intervention more effectively. With a Mental Health background, she serves as the Senior Disability Coordinator in the Accessibility and Disability Services office at Towson University.

Tom Gower (Fall 2022)

Tom Gower is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Public Policy studying the use algorithms in health policy. He is a proud double alum of UMBC with a Bachelor’s in Public Health and an M.P.P. with an emphasis in Health Policy. He is the Advising Coordinator for UMBC’s Political Science Department and is the Teaching Assistant for PUBL 600. Serving as the co-chair for the Public Policy Graduate Student Organization, Tom works to organize events to foster fellowship among graduate students. In his free time, he enjoys watching Premier League Soccer and Formula 1 racing.

Shawana Lachir (Fall 2022)

Shawana Lachir earned her bachelor’s degree at Hood College where she studied sociology and law and criminal justice. As an M.P.P. alumna, she is currently a Ph.D. student. She has a strong passion for racial justice, criminal justice, and equitable policies. She spends a good proportion of her time working on projects that focus on policing, racial equity, social
movements, and racial equity in courts. Currently, her research focus is on how the Black Lives
Matter movement impacts policy change and policing procedures with Dr. Fernando Tormos-Aponte. In addition, she is analyzing legal cynicism in adolescents as well as the impact of School Resource Officers for her dissertation. Legal cynicism is prevalent in disadvantaged neighborhoods and among racial minorities. Police brutality and legal cynicism are two keen concepts that are the driving factors of my research. These are critical issues that plague African American neighborhoods and affect their social climate, political climate, economic climate, and their life opportunities. Recently, Nancy Miller and she published a report for the Maryland
Department of Health on Assisted Living Facilities in Maryland and their Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Tanguy Ringoir (Fall 2022)

Tanguy Ringoir is a graduate assistant from Belgium and is currently working for Prof. Mir Usman Ali. He is the coach of the UMBC Chess Team and his areas of research include health economics and antitrust policy.

Tanya Sayyed (Spring and Fall 2022)

Tanya is working with Dr. Yusuke Kuwayama to demonstrate how satellite data about environmental factors, such as air pollution, urban heat, and urban green spaces, may be combined with socioeconomic information to advance environmental justice policy. She is researching the vital role community health workers play in the US health system to reduce health inequities and improve health outcomes. Tanya conducted public health and community planning field research in Ethiopia. She contributes to climate justice and agroforestry research. Tanya earned her Master of Community Planning degree from the University of Maryland, College Park and her B.S. in International Agricultural Development from the University of California, Davis. As part of an American and Russian Architecture, Economics, and Urban Planning graduate program team, Tanya co-authored Finlyandskie Vorota (Finland Gateway), a Master Plan strategy to redevelop St. Petersburg, Russia’s grey belt. She joined agriculture and environmental policy projects in Italy. She worked with nonprofits in Ethiopia, Jordan, Sudan, and Pakistan.

Catherine Mata Hidalgo (Spring 2022)

Catherine Mata Hidalgo’s research focuses on the study of education as means to improve the life of low-income populations. She is using this fellowship to support travel to the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) and Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) conferences where she will present two papers that are part of her dissertation.

Smitha Prabhu (Fall 2021)

Smitha Mahesh is a Public Policy Ph.D. student specializing in Health Policy. Smitha is currently working with Dr. Fernando Tormos-Aponte on a collaborative research project. The study evaluates the extent of institutional commitments by scientific organizations to address racial equality and diversity following a surge of Black Lives Matter protests in May 2020. The fellowship provides Smitha the financial means to use a high-capacity computer to process, code, and analyze large sets of data for the project.

Jo-Ann Melton Kriebel (Fall 2021)

Jo-Ann Melton Kriebel is a Public Policy PhD student specializing in Public Management. She plans to conduct research on diversity in the federal workforce, in particular, examining the barriers that women and minoritized populations face in promotion and advancement to senior leadership positions.

Adam Yarmolinsky Fellowship

Marly Milić (2024)

Marly is a native Baltimorean, daughter of immigrants, and very proud, future double alumna of UMBC. In 2020, she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and is now pursuing her MPP. She works for the Maryland General Assembly as a chief of staff for a state delegate. Marly takes her work in political advocacy very seriously and is particularly passionate about transportation and housing policy. In her free time, Marly is an amateur seamstress and carpenter and a loving dog mom to her faithful pup, Sammy.

Shadi Seyedi Khabbaz (2024)

Umesh Sharma (2023)

Umesh is an M.P.P. student in the Evaluation and Analytical Methods track and works for the Social Security Administration (SSA) as an IT Specialist. His research interests focus on economic issues such as labor rights, pensions, and economic development. The Yarmolinsky fellowship allows him to perform research on public pension sustainability for his capstone for the M.P.P., which also helps him prepare to apply to the Ph.D. program and move to a research-oriented position at SSA.

Ridwan Islam Sifat (2023)

Ridwan Islam Sifat is a Public Policy Ph.D. student with a specialization in Health Policy. He received his MS and BS in Development Studies with a focus on economics, social development and public policy. He is currently working as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Public Health. He is also a graduate Senator at the UMBC Graduate Student Association. His research interests include public policy and administration, global health policy, health disparities and inequities, comparative politics, AI & Public policy, digital health, climate change & health, reproductive health, and racial/ethnic equity.

Michele Berry (2022)

Michele Berry is pursuing a Masters in Public Policy specializing in environmental policy. The fellowship will support research on her capstone, which will examine how specific language and narratives of the Chesapeake Bay influence public perception and environmental policy decisions that affect equitable decision-making and marginalized communities in Maryland. The goal of her research is to demonstrate how policy makers can analyze their implicit biases to make more equitable decisions surrounding Bay ecology and climate justice.

Michele Calderon (2022)

Michele Calderon is studying international development and is working with the Nursing & Midwifery Development Centre, an innovative NGO in Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq. The Centre develops nurses’ knowledge, expertise, and skills by hosting an annual nursing conference. Additionally, it is building a brick-and-mortar headquarters, where the Centre will offer developmental programs to integrate education with practice, undertake research, and provide advisory and information services to support the advancement of professional nursing and midwifery. Michele is devoting her public policy research to helping the Centre improve and expand programming and achieve quality results. She will evaluate the Centre and participate in its annual conference.

Shawana Lachir (2022)

Melody Afrane Pinamang (2022)

Melody Afrane Pinamang’s research interests include studying health disparities as a means of reducing poverty, improving public policy decisions, and promoting economic development. Her research goal is to use real-world data to assess the impact of health insurance coverages (such as the Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Marketplace) on access to care among minority women and low-income children who may have chronic health conditions.

Doha Chibani (2021)

Adebola Daramola (2021)

Adebola Daramola’s research focuses on financial inclusion policy, digital financial services, and Africa, as part of the Evaluation and Analytical Methods track. The fellowship supports his current work on his comprehensive exam course proposal, which focuses on financial inclusion policy and digital financial services impacts on households in developing countries. The focus is on Nigerian households and low-income populations, like women, and rural dwellers.

Catherine Mata Hidalgo (2021)

Catherine Mata Hidalgo’s research focuses on the study of education as means to improve the life of low-income populations. The fellowship supports her current efforts to study three different programs that aim to help populations that are most at-risk to drop out from formal education, and therefore, risking being in poverty later in life.

Judy Yin Shih Fellowship

Doha Chibani (2024)

Jennifer Walsh (2023)

Jennifer Walsh is a Ph.D candidate within the School of Public Policy at UMBC with a focus on health policy, the same track Dr. Shih pursued. Jennifer also bears other similarities to Dr. Shih including having a B.S. in psychology and a M.S. in clinical psychology. They both were also master-level clinicians at Johns Hopkins Hospital for a point in their career. Jennifer is currently the Senior Disability Coordinator in the Accessibility & Disability Services office at Towson University, working full-time as Dr. Shih did while consecutively earning her doctoral degree. Jennifer’s research is focused on the Opioid Epidemic, particularly how Naloxone distribution programs are implemented in Maryland. She hopes her research will provide insight into how the programs can target the populations who are most at risk of opioid overdoses and distribute Naloxone more effectively. The image above shows Jennifer Walsh (right) standing with Dr. Judy Yin Shih.

Alison Watkins (2022)

Drug shortage in the United States is a well known problem in the medical community, which has resulted in costly health impacts as well as economic losses. Alison Watkins’s research interest focuses on how patient care is currently being impacted by drug shortages and how physicians and hospital pharmacists are handling this crisis. The research will use current drug shortage tracking methods as well as semistructured interviews to shed some more light on the problem. The image above shows Alison Watkins (right) standing with Dr. Judy Yin Shih.

These student fellowships are supported by our generous donors.

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School of Public Policy