Founding Executive Director, Sr. Research Associate, P.I.
Dr. Claudia von Vacano is the Founding Executive Director and Senior Research Associate of D-Lab and Digital Humanities at Berkeley and is on the boards of the Social Science Matrix and Berkeley Center for New Media. She has worked in policy and educational administration since 2000, and at the UC Office of the President and UC Berkeley since 2008. She received a Master’s degree from Stanford University in Learning, Design, and Technology. Her doctorate is in Policy, Organizations, Measurement, and Evaluation from UC Berkeley. Her expertise is in organizational theory and...
Deputy Director of D-Lab; Cyberinfrastructure Architect and Consulting Lead
Aaron Culich is a staff member at the D-Lab with expertise in Cloud Computing, High Performance Computing (HPC), Databases (SQL and NoSQL), JupyterHub and BinderHub infrastructure, and a variety of programming languages (Python, R, Java, C, C++, and more). His ongoing mission is to explore new compute possibilities, discovering useful tools and practices, and making them more accessible to researchers on campus and beyond.
Crystal Hernandez is a second-year undergraduate student studying Computer Science at UC Berkeley. She is interested in majoring in Computer Science, but is open to discovering new majors along the way. She is currently part of the UTech Manager team and is excited to explore new things! Her hobbies include dancing, reading, listening to music, and discovering new foods. Feel free to ask her about any questions you may have!
Hello! My name is Andrew O'Connor. I am a third-year student majoring in Public Health and Data Science. I am interested in using data science to bring attention to health issues and discrepancies in indigenous communities around the world. I am very excited to be a part of D-Lab and I'm looking forward to my time here!
Daniel Lobo is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology with an emphasis in Political Economy at UC Berkeley. He is broadly interested in how culture, or the unspoken “rules of the game,” reproduces inequality within a system of racial capitalism. At the individual level, he is interested in documenting and measuring the extent to which cultural capital and social capital enable or constrain opportunities for intergenerational mobility. At the organizational level, he is interested in documenting and measuring the extent to which culturally-based selection and promotion processes...
Professor of Sociology & Faculty Director, Social Sciences D-Lab
Former Faculty Director, Social Sciences D-Lab.
David Harding studies poverty and inequality, urban neighborhoods, education, adolescents and young adults, incarceration, and prisoner reentry. He uses both qualitative and quantitative methods. His current projects include the social and economic reintegration of former prisoners, the transition to adulthood after prison, the effects of incarceration on crime, employment, and health, and causal inference for contextual effects research.
Kanchana Samala (she/her) is a third year studying Data Science and pursuing the CalTeach Minor. She is currently a uGSI for Data 8 and facilitates the 'Step Out of Overdrive' Decal about understanding the link between stress and human expression. She is curious and passionate about extracting value from big data in a way that will bring joy into people's lives.
Michael earned his B.A.in Psychology from UC Berkeley and currently works as the manager of Professor Okonofua's Equity, Diversity, and Empathy Navigation Sciences Lab in the UC Berkeley Psychology department.
Patricia has a Bachelor of Education (Social Studies) degree and is pursuing a Master of Development Engineering (Concentration: Sustainable Design Innovations) at UC Berkeley. She is concerned about the future, committed to leading and inspiring positive change in the world, and passionate about current issues such as poverty, food sovereignty, climate change, and sustainability. She hopes to be the kind of researcher, educator, social entrepreneur, and development engineer the twenty-first-century needs for a better world. Patricia leverages her passion to help make the world a...
Data Services Manager, Senior Instructor, Senior Consultant, Co-Executive Director of Berkeley FSRDC
D-Lab
Berkeley Graduate School of Education
Renee Starowicz, Ph.D., has been affiliated with the D-Lab since January 2020 when she joined the NSF IUSE, Undergraduate Data Science at Scale project. Renee’s research interests include Critical Disability Studies, Trauma-skilled inclusive practices and Multimodal Communication Access. At the DLab, Renee is an instructor for STATA FUNdamentals and Introduction to Qualtrics.