PPIC Research Affiliate

Selina Gomez

PPIC Research Affiliate
Public Policy Institute of California
Selina Gomez is a research associate at the PPIC Higher Education Center. Her work focuses on higher education accessibility, readiness, and completion. Before joining PPIC, she served as a program specialist at Hayward Unified School District, evaluating K–12 data on comprehensive academic, social, and health services for students. She also worked at Alameda County’s Office of Sustainability and as a middle school educator focused on STEM education through the Public Service Center at the University of California, Berkeley. She holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental economics and...

Shalini Mustala

PPIC Research Affiliate
Public Policy Institute of California
Shalini Mustala is a research associate at the Public Policy Institute of California, where she focuses on the health care safety net. Before joining PPIC, she worked as a planning engineer for the government of India, working closely with rural infrastructure policies. She has a background in civil and environmental engineering and holds a master’s degree in public policy data science from the University of Southern California.

Joe Hayes

PPIC Research Affiliate
Public Policy Institute of California
Joseph Hayes is a senior research associate at the Public Policy Institute of California, where he studies population change, educational policy, and criminal justice issues. Recent projects have focused on estimates of the undocumented immigration population, English Learner reclassification policies in California public schools, and the changing composition of the state’s prison and parole populations. He holds an MS in agricultural economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Eric Assan

PPIC Research Affiliate
Public Policy Institute of California

Eric Assan is a research associate at the PPIC Higher Education Center, where he researches PK–12 and higher education policy. His work focuses on educational equity, dual enrollment, college and career pathways, the impacts of COVID-19, and digital transformation to improve California’s education system. Prior to joining PPIC, he was a graduate teaching assistant at the Berkeley School of Education. He holds a BS in social sciences education from the University of Cape Coast (Ghana), an MEd in educational administration from Huzhou University (China), and an MA in education from the...

Sean Cremin

PPIC Research Affiliate
Public Policy Institute of California

Sean Cremin is a research associate at the Public Policy Institute of California. His research interests lie at the intersection of public safety, criminal justice reform, and socioeconomic opportunity. Prior to joining PPIC, he worked as a senior research associate at NORC at the University of Chicago where he supported evaluations of federally-funded programs aimed at mitigating poverty and inequality. He holds a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and a BA in politics, philosophy, and economics from Pomona...

Augustina Aullman

PPIC Research Affiliate
Public Policy Institute of California
Augustina Ullman serves as the research administrator at the Public Policy Institute of California. She supports research administration and operations across PPIC’s largest department, working closely with researchers and other administrators to execute functions such as budget-tracking, impact and assessment processes, and development activities. Before joining PPIC, she worked as a policy assistant at SPUR, where she supported SPUR’s housing research and advocacy across the Bay Area. She holds a bachelor’s degree in urban planning from the University of California, Berkeley.

Eric McGhee

PPIC Research Affiliate
Public Policy Institute of California

Eric McGhee is a senior fellow at PPIC, where he focuses on elections, legislative behavior, political reform, and surveys and polling. His research on elections and electoral reform has appeared in numerous academic journals, and his work has been profiled on National Public Radio, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and The Economist. He is the creator of the “efficiency gap”—a widely used measure of gerrymandering—and coauthor of a legal test based on the measure that has been presented before the US Supreme Court in recent high-profile litigation. He is an occasional contributor...

Deepak Premkumar

PPIC Research Affiliate
Public Policy Institute of California

Deepak Premkumar is a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, where he specializes in the intersection of race, criminal justice, and health. Through the lens and tools of an economist, his recent work examines the broader effects of police use-of-force and social costs of policing. He aims to provide an empirical guide to understand the determinants of disparities in the legal and health systems, while investigating policies to alleviate them. He has published a book chapter, co-written with Justin McCrary, in The Cambridge Handbook of Policing in the United States....

Brett Guinan

PPIC Research Affiliate
Public Policy Institute of California

Brett Guinan is a research associate at the Public Policy Institute of California, where she focuses on K–12 education policy. Prior to joining PPIC, she was a research data analyst at the California Department of Social Services. She has conducted independent research at the UC Center Sacramento and worked as a research apprentice for the political science department at the University of California, San Diego. She holds a BS in political science and data analytics from UC San Diego.

Daniel Payares-Montoya

PPIC Research Affiliate

Daniel Payares-Montoya is a research associate at the PPIC Higher Education Center. His research focuses on the impact of COVID-19 on California’s community colleges, English as a second language, and the relation between labor markets and higher education in California. Before joining PPIC, he worked as a consultant for the World Bank, concentrating on green growth and green finance in developing countries, and as a researcher at the Center for Latin American Studies, University of California Berkeley, focusing on the socio-economic and political impact of globalization and...