Congratulations to our 2025–2026 Graduating Affiliates!

Congratulations to our 2025–2026 Graduating Affiliates!

/ by

The California Center for Population Research is proud to celebrate the achievements of our graduating affiliates from the 2025–6 academic year. These scholars represent the depth and breadth of population research at UCLA, spanning epidemiology, economics, sociology, urban planning, social welfare, and statistics. We are excited to see where their next chapters take them, and we congratulate them — and their dedicated committees — on this milestone.

 

Matthew Coates (PhD, Epidemiology)
Placement: Postdoctoral Scholar, UCLA
Committee: Onyebuchi Arah (Chair), Chad Hazlett, Roch Nianogo, Annette Regan, Zuo-Feng Zhang

Chuanjie Monica Deng (PhD, Epidemiology)
Placement: RWE Biostatistician, Eli Lilly and Company
Committee: Julia Heck and Beate Ritz (Co-Advisors), Mia Hashibi, Liwei Chen, Catherine Crespi-Chun

Aurora Echavarria (PhD, Urban Planning)
Placement: Assistant Professor, Florida State University
Committee: Paavo Monkkonen, Darin Christensen, Veronica Herrera, Diane Davis

Kimberly Fuentes (PhD, Social Welfare)
Placement: Assistant Professor, Civil Science & Community Studies and Human Development & Family Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Committee: Amy Ritterbusch (Chair), David Turner III, Kailey Heitz, Carlos Santos, Bianca Wilson

Jose Inguanzo Gonzalez (PhD, Economics)
Placement: Research Economist, Banco de México
Committee: Martha Bailey (Chair), Daniel Haanwinckel, Juliana Londoño-Vélez, Natalie Bau

Ekaterina Gurkova (PhD, Economics)
Placement: Assistant Professor, Paris School of Economics
Committee: Lee E. Ohanian (Co-Chair), Oleg Itskhoki (Co-Chair), Ariel Burstein, Jonathan Vogel, Pierre-Olivier Weill

Ryo Ikesu (PhD, Epidemiology)
Placement: Assistant Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Human Behavior, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University
Committee: Elizabeth Rose Mayeda (Advisor), Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa

Nanum Jeon (PhD, Sociology)
Placement: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Office of Population Research, Princeton University
Committee: Jennie E. Brand (Chair), Ian Lundberg, Natasha Quadlin, Wei-hsin Yu, Xiaowu Dai

Jonathan Kowarski (PhD, Economics)
Placement: Managing Economist, Berkeley Research Group
Committee: Adriana Lleras-Muney (Chair), Martha Bailey, Till von Wachter, Yotam Shem-Tov

Taylor Mobley (PhD, Epidemiology)
Placement: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Committee: Elizabeth Rose Mayeda (Chair), Onyebuchi Arah, Thomas Belin, Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez, Kathryn Leifheit

Patrick Molligo (PhD, Economics)
Placement: Visiting Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania State University
Committee: Dora Costa (Chair), Martha Bailey, Maurizio Mazzocco, Daniel Haanwinckel

Tanvi Shinkre (PhD, Statistics)
Placement: Scientist, Uber
Committee: Chad Hazlett, Jennie Brand, Onyebuchi Arah, Tom Belin