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.

Grants, Awards and Distinctions:

Deacon Fellowship, UCSB Economics Department

UC MEXUS- CONACYT Doctoral Fellowship (2019-2024)

UC Berkeley and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Diversity Fellowship for participating in the Berkeley/Sloan Summer School in Energy and Environmental Economics, $1,000

CAF Development Bank of Latin America, Research Grant on Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, co-PI, $6,000

Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Assistant, UCSB Economics (2023) 

Ruth Morales is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Economics at UC Santa Barbara. Before starting at UCSB, she earned both a B.A. and M.A. in economics from San Diego State University. Her primary research interests are in labor economics and public economics. She is especially interested in investigating outcomes related to education, crime, and immigration policies. Her current lines of research focus on the demographic effects of the Bracero Program and on the impact of college-level remedial education reform in the community college system.

Gabrielle Husted is a PhD student in the Geography Department and the current Broom Center for Demography lab manager. She investigates the interactivity of people, places, and environment (built and natural) as they relate to public health challenges in our society. Of particular interest are social determinants of health, environmental hazards, and health outcomes. 

Gabrielle earned a bachelor’s of science in nursing from the University of Portland. Previously, she has worked in oncology and public health. Most recently, she was working with the Public Health Institute on their Tracing Health Program, which launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now she is working with Population Health in Geography (PHiG), and her current projects include exploring the socio-demographic patterning of exposure to phthalates (microplastics), socio-demographic predictors to extreme heat, and access and uptake of health behaviors that promote or protect against the development of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD). 

I am a Ph.D. student in Economics at UC Santa Barbara. I graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a bachelor’s degree in Economics. My research interests are in labor economics, public economics, and health economics. I am currently researching policy changes that affect fertility.

Grants, Awards and Distinctions:
California Policy Lab. 2022. $6,500 Seed Grant.
Graduate Fellow Grant. 2022. $10,000.