2011-2012 Scholar Grant Recipient
Phil Ashton, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning & Policy. His primary scholarly focus has been the organization of US mortgage markets and the effects of financial restructuring on inner city neighborhoods. His work combines innovative theorizing with empirical research on financial markets and firms to critique the concepts that undergird conventional interpretations of how inner cities will fare in the “new financial marketplace” – in particular, the concept of risk. He has developed these ideas through a series of analyses of the subprime mortgage market, the neighborhood-level dimensions of the mortgage crisis and, more recently, the role of investment banks in the privatization of urban infrastructure. He has recently turned to focus on the tensions in civil rights frameworks as they have been applied to questions of credit access; in 2008- 2009, he was a Faculty Scholar at the Great Cities Institute at UIC, beginning a research project on the reshaping of citizenship through financial crises.
Sabine French, Assistant Professor of Psychology. Her primary research interest is studying ethnic identity development in adolescents and second line of research focuses on factors that promote or hinder academic achievement among ethnically diverse adolescents. She has published articles in a range of journals, including: Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Science, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, and Developmental Psychology. Dr. French has been awarded several grants and fellowships, namely a Ford Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship and the James Irvine Foundation Grant.
Matthew Hall, Assistant Professor of Sociology and the Institute of Government and Public Affairs. Some of his current research explores patterns and determinants of segregation in new metropolitan destinations, how segregation impacts the quality of immigrants' housing and neighborhood quality, the mobility reactions of native-born Americans to local immigration, and the role of legal status in the integration of Mexican immigrants. Widely published, Dr. Hall's articles have appeared in journals such as, Urban Studies, Social Science Research, and Population, Space, and Place. He has two articles forthcoming: "Neighborhood Immigration and Native Out-Mobility" in American Sociological Review and "Extended Kin Resources and Racial Inequality in the Transition to Home Ownership" in Social Science Research.
Claudia Hernandez, Assistant Professor of Dermatology. Her research focuses on the development and testing of a community-based program that educates Hispanics about skin cancer screening and prevention. She has two articles, "Spanish Speaking Patient Health Educational Preferences" and "Medical Student Detection of Melanoma: Clinical Skills," forthcoming in the Archives of Dermatology. Her research has been supported by organizations such as, Institute of Medicine Chicago and Institute for Health Policy Research, and she has been the recipient of the Dermatology Foundation Women's Health Career Development Award.
Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar, Professor and Head of the Department of Occupational Therapy. She is also the Associate Director of the Center for Capacity Building for Minorities with Disabilities Research. Her areas of research and teaching include participatory community needs assessment methodologies and empowerment approaches to the evaluation of community initiatives designed to address the needs of people with disabilities and populations of color. The recipient of numerous awards and grants, Dr. Suarez-Balacazar most recently received funding from the U.S. Department of Education and the Sprague Foundation. She has been published in a range of journals, including: Journal of Rehabilitation, Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, and Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences.
