2021-22 Cohort Participants

Learn more about the participants of our third cohort! (2021-22)

Amani Starnes (she/her) 

Amani is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Theater and Performance Studies department and holds an undergraduate degree from Yale University. At Stanford, her work focuses on contemporary Black feminist performance and adaptation. Before and during graduate school, she has worked as a professional actor, singer, producer, and educator committed to equitable representation in theater, film, and television. When not trapped in her home by research demands or a global pandemic, she adores traveling (mostly for the food, but cultural exchange in general is good, too), dancing basically anywhere to anything, the great outdoors, dinner parties, a good show, jumpsuits, Topgolf, her cats Miles and Davis, and cooking anything that goes with cheese (so, everything).

Chanhee Heo (she/her)

Chanhee is a PhD candidate in the Religious Studies department, studying American Religions. Her research interests include transnational religious history from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century with a focus on race and immigration—particularly, the relationship between race and religion in American history and colonial governance. She hopes to continue her work as a religious historian while cultivating diverse and inclusive learning and research environments. During her free time, Chanhee enjoys snuggling with her dog, walking in nature, reading fiction, and pretending to be a commentator for tv shows.

Edward Apraku (he/him)

Edward is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and is currently rotating in the lab of Dr. William Tarpeh in the Department of Chemical Engineering. In the lab, he currently researches the regeneration and recovery of nutrients using a combination of electrochemistry and ion exchange methods. His research interests have an overarching goal of remediating the environmental injustices that disproportionately affect low-income and BIPOC. As a first-generation college student, he is also passionate about increasing diversity, strengthing inclusion, and improving retention within the STEM field. Edward was born in Ghana but grew up in Arizona and completed a B.S.E at Arizona State University in Civil and Environmental Engineering. When not in the lab, Edward enjoys exercising, exploring San Francisco, hiking, and religiously streaming Spotify to maintain his yearly average listening time of 140,000+ minutes.  

Elaine Lai (she/they) 

Elaine is currently a PhD candidate in Religious Studies, focusing on Buddhism. Prior to Stanford, she spent many years working and studying in China, Taiwan, Nepal, Hong Kong, and India where she played many roles—student, teacher, filmmaker, translator, yoga instructor and more. Upon graduating, Elaine hopes to use whatever skills she learns to be of benefit to others, and especially to uplift the stories and voices of those who continue to be unseen by mainstream society and culture. Elaine feels most at home in the creative arts, whether it’s writing screenplays, plays, fiction, or imagining new stories into existence. She thrives most when dreaming and creating in beloved community.

Marianthi Karageorgi (She/Her)

Marianna is an international postdoc scholar in the Biology Department at Stanford. She was born and raised in Greece. After obtaining her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Crete and University of Heidelberg, respectively, she moved to Marseille, France in 2012 to pursue a Ph.D. in behavioral genetics and evolution. In 2017, she moved to the US to continue her research as a postdoctoral fellow first at UC Berkeley and then at Stanford. In her postdoctoral research, she has been studying how insects (e.g., the monarch butterfly) have evolved resistance to host plant toxins and synthetic insecticides. Based on her experiences as an international woman in science, Marianna would like to contribute to efforts to build up an organization in the US that will provide support and mentorship to fellow international women in science. In her free time, she loves dancing tango, taking yoga classes, and gardening.

Kelley Langhans (she/her)

Kelley is a 4th year PhD candidate in the Department of Biology. Kelley studies conservation solutions that benefit biodiversity and people in human-dominated environments, from agricultural landscapes in Costa Rica to the urban San Francisco Bay Area. She aspires to bring justice to her work by focusing on how conservation can be implemented equitably, such that marginalized groups have equal access to nature’s benefits. After graduating, Kelley hopes to remain in the Bay Area, working on increasing urban access to nature in a policy or non-profit role. Outside of the office, Kelley enjoys hiking, raising too many houseplants, cooking for her 20-person co-op, and feuding with her hyperactive cat Orfeo. 

Lene Kristian Bryngemark (they/them)

Lene is a postdoctoral scholar in particle physics. They are very interested in what it means to (not) perform Physicist, both conceptually and in terms of consequences for the individual and the field, especially in terms of justice and equity. After getting their degrees participating in the huge experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, CERN, Lene Kristian is currently working on designing a much smaller dark matter experiment, to be built at SLAC outside Stanford. Besides thinking about how to find something without knowing much about how it will look or behave, they spend a lot of their time dog spotting, speculating, and music making.

Diana Dou (she/her)

Diana is currently a postdoctoral scholar studying epigenetic gene regulation in autoimmune diseases. Prior to Stanford, she double-majored in Biology and Business, Economics and Management at Caltech and earned her PhD in Molecular Biology at UCLA. In the near future, she hopes to continue her path in academia and lead a biomedical research team of her own as a primary investigator. A former two-sport NCAA athlete at a nerdy school, Diana enjoys running, reading, fine-tuning her varied various playlists, and anything involving basketball in her free time.

Michelle Ha (she/her)

Michelle is a PhD student in the Modern Thought & Literature (MTL) program at Stanford. She worked as a lawyer before going back to school to follow her current project researching the history of Korean indentured labor migration to Mexico at the turn of the twentieth century. She hopes to present this story as a case study for theorizing the relationship between colonialism and migration and, ultimately, how to fashion a more just immigration system. MTL has enabled her to turn her hobbies–namely, going down research rabbit holes–into her vocation, but other activities she enjoys that are less immediately relevant to her doctoral work include walking the Dish, learning flamenco dance, and trying new teas. 

Danee Conley (she/her)

Danee Conley is a dramaturg turned academic in Stanford TAPS’ PhD program. She received her BA in Theater/Dance and American Studies from Trinity College in Hartford, CT as well as her MA in Theater and Performance Studies from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. She has also studied with the La Mama Experimental Theatre Club and the Shakespeare Globe in London. Her current research looks at contemporary strategic board games as they intersect with postcolonial spectatorship, activism, and identity formation through game play. Her interests also include game design, intent versus impact, and the potential for cultural or ethical consulting in gaming companies, both board and video. In her spare time, Danee loves to cook, cuddle with her service dog, and watch reruns of Supermarket Sweep. 

Linda Eggert (she/her)

Linda is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Ethics in Society; she also spends some of her time at Apple University. Linda works in moral, political, and legal philosophy, and specialises in ethics — at the moment, her work is focused on AI, human rights, and democracy. By bringing philosophical analysis to bear on issues of public concern, Linda hopes to help decision-makers work out what responsibilities we have to one another as we continue to make AI more powerful and prevalent. When Linda is not writing, teaching, or advising, you can find her riding horses, playing the piano, and debating the Constitution with her partner.

Laura Driscoll (she/they)

Laura studies how brains compute, mostly through simulations in artificial neural networks. She is currently a postdoctoral scholar in the Neural Prosthetic Systems Laboratory at Stanford. Laura wants to create a more inclusive environment for learning and research in academia. Following her postdoctoral studies, she will pursue a career as a principal investigator at a research university to continue her studies in theoretical neuroscience and to increase access and belonging for underrepresented groups in her field. When Laura isn’t training networks for science, she does it for art. She also finds fulfillment in mutual aid, construction projects and trail running.

Kemi A. Oyewole (she/her)

Kemi A. Oyewole is a Ph.D. candidate in education and organization studies at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Her scholarship centers on the organizational conditions necessary for successful school reform—currently by studying the knowledge-sharing practices of an instructional coaching network. Upon graduation, Kemi hopes to work as professor of educational leadership: conducting research to support school district improvement and teaching educators frameworks to see their leadership in new ways. Previously, Kemi taught mathematics to middle students and was trained as an educator through the Boston Teacher Residency. She earned an M.A. in sociology from Stanford, an M.Ed. in education from the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and a B.A. in economics and mathematics from Spelman College. In her spare time, Kemi enjoys mentoring students, watching reality television, and practicing mindfulness.