Stephanie Luna-Lopez

Research Fellow

My path to this work began with my own experience as a first-generation Latina from the San Joaquin Valley navigating higher education. As an Ethnic Studies major with a double minor in Education and Public Policy at UC Berkeley, I learned to name the systemic and racialized mechanisms that had shaped my own educational trajectory. Those concepts and theories drew me toward pursuing a doctorate because I wanted to develop theories and explain phenomena to inform research, policy, and practice for students like me.

Stephanie Luna-Lopez is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Davis, studying School Organization and Educational Policy, with a designated emphasis in Computational Social Science. Her research interests focus on firstgeneration and minority students, access to information about higher education, and the role of digital resources and social networks in students’ experiences and outcomes.