Our Team

Jennifer Eberhardt, Ph.D., is Morris M. Doyle Centennial Professor of Public Policy, Professor of Organizational Behavior and Psychology, and Faculty Co-Director of SPARQ. She studies the psychological association between race and crime and the dehumanization of Black Americans in contemporary society. Through interdisciplinary collaborations and innovative methods—from laboratory studies to novel field experiments—her work demonstrates the consequences of these racial associations and biases in criminal justice, education, and business. Dr. Eberhardt is the author of Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do, a recipient of the MacArthur “genius grant,” and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Contact: jleberhardt@stanford.edu

Hazel Rose Markus, Ph.D., is Davis-Brack Professor in the Behavioral Sciences, Professor of Psychology, and Faculty Co-Director of SPARQ. She studies how cultures, including those of nation or region of origin, gender, social class, race, ethnicity, religion, and occupation shape—and are, in turn, shaped by—people’s thoughts, feelings, motivations, and actions. She applies this cultural psychology framework to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools, workplaces, and other important contexts in people’s lives, and to catalyzing culture change. Dr. Markus is the co-author of Clash!: How to Thrive in a Multicultural World and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Contact: hmarkus@stanford.edu

MarYam Hamedani, Ph.D., is Managing Director and Senior Research Scientist at SPARQ. She studies and puts into practice strategies to help people live, work, and thrive in today’s increasingly diverse and divided world. At SPARQ, she creates opportunities for researchers and practitioners to learn from one another in mutually beneficial partnerships. Her expertise is in harnessing the power of culture to support organizational and societal change and disrupting cultural defaults that lead to bias and inequality. The former Associate Director of Stanford’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE), Dr. Hamedani is also a Stanford Ph.D. alum in psychology. Contact: maryamh@stanford.edu

Alia Crum, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Psychology and SPARQ’s Director of Health. She studies how changes in subjective mindsets can alter objective reality through behavioral, psychological, and physiological mechanisms. She researches how mindsets can be changed through intervention to improve organizational and individual performance, physiological and psychological well-being, and interpersonal effectiveness. She directs the Mind & Body Lab and is co-editor of the Handbook of Wise Interventions: How Social Psychology Can Help People Change. Contact: crum@stanford.edu

Rebecca Hetey, Ph.D., is Associate Director of Criminal Justice Partnerships and Research Scientist at SPARQ. She is an expert on race and the criminal justice system and focuses on strategies to improve police-community relations. At SPARQ, Dr. Hetey works closely with law enforcement across California on research and training initiatives. She received her Ph.D. in psychology at Stanford, where she was advised by SPARQ Faculty Co-Director Jennifer Eberhardt, and her B.A. from Yale University. Contact: rhetey@stanford.edu

Xuan Zhao, Ph.D., is a Research Scientist at SPARQ. She studies how to help people connect, offer and appreciate different perspectives, foster meaningful conversations and positive interactions, and create inclusive environments. She also works on how people interact with/via humanlike technologies and their downstream consequences. Prior to SPARQ, Dr. Zhao was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she also collaborated with The Second City to design communication and inclusion workshops using improv techniques. She received her Ph.D. from Brown University. Contact: xuanzhao@stanford.edu

Camilla Griffiths, Ph.D., is a Research Scientist at SPARQ. Her research explores how people develop beliefs about themselves and others through their interactions with institutions, including in education and media. Dr. Griffiths is particularly interested in how race shapes teacher and student experiences in school, and how racial representation on television shapes viewer attitudes. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at Stanford University, and her B.S. from the University of Virginia. Contact: camillag@stanford.edu

Amrita Maitreyi is a Research Associate at SPARQ. She received a B.S. in Psychology from Tufts University, and previously worked as Lab Manager and Research Coordinator of the Mind, Culture, and Society Lab at Stanford. At SPARQ, she works on projects about fostering economic mobility and improving police-community relations. Contact: amaitreyi@stanford.edu

Julia Proshan is the Lab Manager at SPARQ. She received her B.S. in Psychology and Civic Studies from Tufts University, where she researched the psychological bases of racial disparities in plea bargaining and the criminal justice system more broadly. She mentors SPARQ’s team of undergraduate research assistants and engages in projects analyzing the role of race in police-community relations and the impact of television character portrayals on racial attitudes. Contact: jproshan@stanford.edu

Postdoc and Professional Research Affiliates

Catherine Thomas, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Scholar at SPARQ. She assesses psychological drivers of cycles of poverty and inequality through lab and field experiments in the U.S. and low-income countries. With a focus on agency and dignity, she tests culturally attuned psychological interventions for reducing poverty, attenuating inequality, and mitigating prejudice against people living in poverty. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Stanford University and an M.Sc. in Global Mental Health from the University of London. Contact: ccthomas@stanford.edu

Golijeh Golarai, Ph.D., is a Research Scientist at SPARQ. She studies the neural mechanisms of automatic vs. controlled processes that shape social interactions, interpersonal judgments, and decision making using behavioral and neuroimaging methods. She received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and was previously a postdoctoral fellow and research associate at the Stanford Medical School and Psychology Department, studying the development of face processing in children and how group preferences shape this development. Contact: ggolarai@stanford.edu

Jordan Starck, Ph.D., is an IDEAL Fellow in the Psychology Department at Stanford University. His research investigates organizational diversity commitments, racial bias, and racial inequality, often in the context of education. He received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology & Social Policy from Princeton University. Contact: jostarck@stanford.edu

Esin Durmus, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford's Artificial Intelligence group mentored by Dan Jurafsky and Tatsunori Hashimoto. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University, where she was advised by Claire Cardie. Her recent work focuses on building AI methods to better understand the characteristics of constructive race conversations on social media platforms.  

Kristina Gligorić, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Scholar in Computer Science at Stanford. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne). Kristina researches computational approaches to understanding and improving human behavior, well-being, and social good, both online and offline. 

Tobin Belzer, Ph.D., is a Research Affiliate at SPARQ. As an applied sociologist, her research and program evaluations have focused on young adults and teens, education and experiential education, leadership training, organizational culture, congregational studies, Jewish identity, character development, gender, inclusion, media and technology, and arts and culture. Dr. Belzer is a Contributing Fellow at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture (CRCC) at the University of Southern California. Contact: tbelzer@gmail.com

Vinod Prabhakaran, Ph.D., is a Research Affiliate at SPARQ. His research brings together natural language processing techniques, machine learning algorithms, and social science methods to address large-scale societal issues such as racial disparities in policing, workplace incivility, gender bias and stereotypes, and abusive behavior online. Dr. Prabhakaran works as a Research Scientist at Google on issues around Ethical Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Fairness. Contact: vinod@cs.stanford.edu

Xiao Ge, Ph.D., received her doctorate in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford. She studies how emotion mediates reframing in creative problem-solving and how to effectively leverage emotions in technology-mediated work across cultures. Contact: xiaog@stanford.edu

Chunchen Xu, Ph.D., received her doctorate in Micro Organizational Behavior from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is interested in the social and psychological impact of technology, especially the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in many sectors. Her current work explores how cultural beliefs affect the design and deployment of AI technology across the globe. Contact: cxu66@stanford.edu

Graduate Student Research Affiliates

Sakaria Laisene Auelua-Toomey is a doctoral student in social psychology at Stanford. He studies the ways in which the dynamic between context and meta-beliefs can reinforce racial inequality. 

Nicky Sullivan is a doctoral student in developmental and social psychology at Stanford. He studies how children learn about race and racism, especially in the context of parent-child conversations. 

Clarissa Gutierrez is a doctoral student in Developmental & Psychological Sciences at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. She studies how identity and culture influence historically underrepresented students’ belonging and academic outcomes. Clarissa was previously SPARQ’s lab manager.

Maggie Harrington is a doctoral student in social psychology at Stanford. She researches inequality, bias, and mindsets in criminal justice. Maggie was previously a research associate at SPARQ.

Cinoo Lee is a doctoral student in social psychology at Stanford. She researches culture, inequality, narratives, and how to foster more structurally and psychologically inclusive cultures and systems.

Ellen Reinhart is a doctoral student in social psychology at Stanford. She studies how race shapes perception in the criminal justice system and how people perceive social inequality across cultures. Ellen was formerly SPARQ's research manager.

Nay San is a doctoral student in linguistics at Stanford. His research focuses on making speech and language technologies more robust and accessible for typically under-served populations (e.g., speakers of endangered languages).

Rachel Song is a doctoral student in social psychology at the University of Washington. She studies how people's conceptualization of racism and diversity impact collective action. Rachel was previously SPARQ’s research manager.

Daphna Spivack is a law and doctoral student in social psychology at Stanford. She studies racial bias in discretionary decision making in the civil and criminal legal systems.

SPARQlab Undergraduate Student Research Assistants

SPARQ’s research assistants are an essential and valuable part of our team. Learn more about how to become a research assistant.

Alumni

Visit our Alumni page to see where some of our former members are now.