About Eviction Lab

Lavar Edmonds is a research specialist with the Eviction Lab. Guided by experiences as a high school math teacher, his research broadly centers around inequality, particularly in education. In college, he worked as the data analyst for the school’s Student Transition Program, studying academic outcomes for first-generation and traditionally underrepresented minority students at the university. While at Penn, Lavar worked as a research assistant at the School District of Philadelphia and conducted a semester-long research project examining the causes of teacher exit in Tulsa Public Schools. His current research explores the impact of teachers from Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs) on student achievement. As part of the Eviction Lab team, he is especially interested in studying the intersection of housing policy – namely, causes and consequences of housing instability – with education policy. Beyond policy research, Lavar is a classically-trained violinist, and enjoys music performance and rousing, relatively slow-paced games of tennis. Originally from Norfolk, Virginia, Lavar studied economics and mathematics at the University of Mary Washington and education policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ashley joined the Eviction Lab as a postdoctoral research associate after completing her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her dissertation research examined the formation and consequences of spatial clustering of children with non-medical exemptions to school vaccine requirements in California. More broadly, her research interests focus on how social networks and local communities provide the social context for individual decisions and events that aggregate to form macro-level patterns across space and time. She is particularly interested in how quantitative and computational methodology can be used with administrative and online data to gain new insights into social behavior and community-level outcomes. When not cleaning data (which she rather enjoys), she goes hiking, puts together puzzles, and has been working her way through Amazon’s list of 100 books to read in a lifetime.

James is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where he obtained a B.A. in Public Policy with a focus on Applied Statistics and Labor Policy. He has worked for several public interest research and advocacy groups, such as the ACLU and the Economic Growth Institute, where he developed a deep interest in the intersection of statistical analysis and policy. Currently serving as a Research Affiliate with the Eviction Lab, James seeks to better understand the impact of eviction on residents of public housing, as well as how local policymakers can best craft housing assistance solutions that will benefit their communities. In his free time, he is an avid dancer and enjoys volunteering in the local arts community.

Aparna completed her Ph.D. at the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her dissertation research studies the relationship between land conservation policies and economic development. A large part of her current research is devoted to studying the extent to which early land conservation policies in the USA affect later economic and environmental conditions in the Great Plains. More broadly, her research interests include how urban and rural land policies affect inequality. Her research combines methods and theories from environmental economics, economic history, and development economics with modern empirical strategies.

You can read more about her at aparnahowlader.com.

Amber Jackson is a Research Specialist at Eviction Lab. Amber earned her B.A. in Sociology with a minor in Politics, Law, and Social Thought at Rice University. At Rice, Amber was also involved in numerous programs with the Center for Civic Leadership such as the Houston Policy Challenge, Alternative Spring Break, etc. During her undergraduate studies, she was able to do research projects on reproductive justice and housing policy issues focusing on their intersections with education, income, and race. At the Eviction Lab, Amber’s research interests involve studying racial residential segregation, Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and the effects of neighborhoods on quality of life and socioeconomic mobility.

Annalaan joined the Eviction Lab as an administrative assistant in 2023. She received her master’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing and her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Real Estate from Monmouth University. Beginning as a program assistant at the lab, she curated and conducted outreach to anti-poverty organizations for the website End Poverty USA, which launched alongside Poverty, By America. She previously worked at the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music as an archival assistant in West Long Branch, NJ. During her work at the archives, she contributed to exhibits such as “Bruce Springsteen: Live!” which traveled across the various Grammy Museums nationwide. Annalaan loves to read, swim and play hyper-competitive card games with her friends and their parents on the weekends.

Renee received her B.A. from Princeton University where she concentrated in Sociology and received a certificate in Statistics and Machine Learning. Her undergraduate research endeavors ranged from examining nonprofit Twitter behavior, analyzing attitudes towards inequality across forty years of survey data, as well as studying the experiences of student dining hall workers on campus. Her broader intellectual interests include the intersection of qualitative and quantitative methods in the social sciences. Originally from Singapore, Renee loves film, travel, stand-up comedy and R programming.

Helena received her HBSc from the University of Toronto in 2017, and graduated from Columbia University’s MA in Global Thought program in 2019. She has worked at the nexus of health, politics and social inequality in academic and public service capacities, and is broadly interested in researching social welfare policy, urban inequality, citizenship and social stratification. Her extra-academic life consists of roaming around New York, drinking bodega iced coffee and sketching.

Adam is a research specialist with the Eviction Lab. He received his bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a concentration in analysis and research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to working at Princeton, he supported social science research projects at the Center for Financial Security and the Environmental Resources Center. He also has a background in political organizing and community non-profits. At the eviction lab, Adam’s research interests include exploring the intersection between affordable housing policy, community health, and cooperative economic institutions.

Ndidi is a junior at Princeton University concentrating in the Woodrow Wilson School and pursuing certificates in the Global Health Program and African American Studies. On campus, she serves as Co-Vice President of Insure Jersey, and volunteers with the HomeFront Health Initiative and Students for Prison Education and Reform (SPEAR). In her free time, she enjoys singing with the Trego ensemble. As someone who is interested in the social determinants of health, she looks forward to potentially investigating the relationship between housing and health outcomes.

Rita is currently a Master in Public Policy candidate at the School of Public and International Affairs. She previously served as Executive Director of the City of San Diego’s Office of Immigrant Affairs where she managed the city’s Welcoming San Diego initiative and inclusive programs to help immigrants in the city establish new lives in San Diego. Prior to that, she was Associate Director for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. Rita got her start working on immigration and border issues in the office of Rep. Juan Vargas of California where she worked as a Press Aide. Rita was born and raised in the city of Chula Vista in San Diego County and is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. In 2010, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of San Diego. She is currently researching the impact of evictions on undocumented immigrant communities.

Henry is a first-year doctoral student in Sociology and Social Policy at Princeton University. He graduated from Harvard College in 2017 with a degree in Sociology and a minor in Statistics. For his undergraduate thesis, he studied how American cities have become unaffordable for many renters and the consequences that has had for social life in rent-burdened communities. Henry currently studies the causes of rising rent prices, the relationships between landlords and tenants, and how evictions affect community life. In his free time, Henry likes to cook, listen to podcasts, and recite scenes from sitcoms to patient friends.

Gracie is a doctoral candidate in Demography and Social Policy at Princeton University, and a medical student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She graduated with an AB from Princeton in 2012 in Public Policy and International Affairs. Gracie studies health disparities, and how social inequality is reflected in, and perpetuated by, the health care system. Her recent work has looked at how the effects of abstinence-only education funding on teen reproductive health outcomes varies by state political ideology, and how ACA-facilitated Medicaid expansion altered social determinants of health such as food insecurity. In her free time Gracie likes to ski, take pictures of everything she cooks, and ask strangers if she can pet their dogs.

Tina Lee is a first year Master in Public Affairs student at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. She holds a B.A. in Economics and Environmental Studies from the University of Toronto. Prior to Princeton, Tina worked at the National League of Cities where she managed eviction prevention technical assistance programs and research projects on topics like the impacts of institutional investors in local housing markets. Tina also works part time as the Director of Content for a California-based housing and urban development consultancy that develops strategic plans, research, and grant applications for nonprofits, housing coalitions, state working groups, civil rights law firms and more.

Matt is a doctoral student in Population Studies and Social Policy at Princeton University. He graduated with his B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of Notre Dame in 2015. Before beginning his studies at Princeton, Matt worked as a research assistant and programmer at Mathematica Policy Research, where he developed an interest in housing policy and segregation. Matt currently studies how racial, ethnic, and economic integration can reduce prejudice and improve social trust within communities. At the Eviction Lab, he hopes to study how integration and fair housing policies affect residential displacement patterns. Matt plays guitar, drums, and a bit of piano and in a past life, was a drummer in an alternative rock band.

Scott Overbey is a junior in the Economics Department at Princeton University pursuing certificates in Statistics/Machine Learning, Political Economy, and Urban Studies. His research interests generally cover poverty, housing, and public finance in the United States and what government, specifically at a local level, can do to address social ills. As a proud Cincinnati native, he hopes to use this research to impact local policy making in his hometown. Outside of the Lab, Scott is an Assistant Residential College Advisor in Butler College, Captain of the Model United Nations Team, and a Junior Fellow for the Pace Center’s Service Focus Program.

Martin is a rising senior and student at Rutgers University where he is majoring in Criminal Justice and minoring in Legal Studies. Prior to interning at the Eviction Lab, Martin interned at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice where he focused on social issues, such as racial wealth disparities and inequality, among other things. He has also worked as a paralegal in the State Department of Corrections where he provided legal assistance to system-impacted people. He is interested in research in housing insecurity and racial inequality. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to music, exercising, writing, and reading short articles.

Devin Q. Rutan is a first-year Ph.D. student in Princeton’s Sociology Department and is affiliated with the Office of Population Research. He is interested in the re-production of spatial inequality and the persistence of residential segregation. In 2016, he received a Bachelor of Philosophy in Urban Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently exploring the relationships between rising rents and evictions.

Naomi is a third-year undergraduate in the Sociology department, pursuing a certificate in the Center for Human Values. Prior to beginning at Princeton, she lived in Dakar, Senegal in a year of cultural immersion, fostering an interest in the relationship between development interventions and how they interact with the complexities of people’s lived experiences. Her current research interests include international development, poverty interventions, and mental health disparities, global and domestic. In the lab, she is thrilled to explore the relationship between eviction and educational outcomes. Outside of research, Naomi spends time singing ‘60s and ‘70s folk music and running through the woods of Princeton.

Gillian Slee is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology and Social Policy at Princeton University. She graduated from Harvard College in 2016 with a degree in Social Studies and a minor in Psychology. In 2017, Gillian earned her M.Phil. degree in Criminology at the University of Cambridge where she was a Herchel Smith Harvard Scholar. Her research focuses on urban poverty, criminal justice, housing, policy, and ethnography. Gillian is a recipient of Princeton’s Centennial and Marion J. Levy fellowships. At the Eviction Lab, she is currently exploring the neighborhood-level consequences of eviction on voting.

Sharvari is a rising junior at Swarthmore College pursuing a double major in computer science and English literature. She previously interned at the Pennsylvania Prison Society, where she helped provide resources to incarcerated people across the country. At Swarthmore, Sharvari is a news editor for her campus publication and a computer science mentor. (edited)

Larry is a second-year undergraduate at Princeton University majoring in Operations Research and Financial Engineering, and pursuing certificates in Computer Science and Statistics and Machine Learning. He is a member of the National Society of Black Engineers and Princeton’s Black Men’s Association. In his free time, he enjoys listening to music and chilling with friends. He is interested in learning how statistics and machine learning can help affect impact real-life situations such as housing.