Jimena Rico-Straffon is a Ph.D. student in Economics at UC Santa Barbara. She holds a Master of Public Policy from Duke University and a B.A. in Economics from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). Her professional experience includes conducting research on inequality, deforestation, monetary policy, and environmental policy at Mexico's central bank, the World Wildlife Fund US, and Mexico's National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change. Her research interests include natural resource economics, development, gender and racial inequality, and intergenerational social mobility. Her current research focuses on forest policy, as well as on the role of skin color on teenagers’ aspirations and investments in education.

Adam Burston is a Ph.D. student in the Sociology Dept. with an emphasis in Information, Technology, and Society. His work lies at the intersection of gender, race, and social movement studies. His dissertation research focuses on the strategies that conservative and right-wing activists employ to form multi-racial coalitions, mobilize in digital and physical spaces, and enact social change. He is also assisting Drs. Sarah Thébaud and Brenda Major on research that addresses the impact of normative gender stereotypes in America. Before Adam came to UCSB he was a research associate with Carnegie Mellon’s Dept. of Engineering and Public Policy and a volunteer crisis counselor with Pittsburgh Action Against Rape (PAAR).