What is the EPSI Lab?
The Education Policy Student Innovation Lab was founded by graduate students studying education policy at Teachers College, Columbia University, to provide an accessible and practical research and policy based experience. Since inception, the program has grown to include members from dozens of universities across the country, ranging from the City University of New York, to Harvard University, to the University of California, Berkeley.
Our Mission
The EPSI Lab seeks to provide graduate students with the opportunity to collaborate across disciplines and institutions on research and program development in the education policy space. We seek to develop a collection of scholars prepared to address, not merely examine, educational and social inequality.
Our Vision
The EPSI Lab envisions a world in which the talents and capacity of graduate students are harnessed for the common good through relevant research and program development. We seek to disrupt institutional barriers to valuable collaborations and career development opportunities by facilitating student-led initiatives that are inclusive of all talented and passionate applicants, regardless of institutional prestige or social background. We hope to move scholarship beyond documenting inequality and towards acting on solutions through policy change.
Basic Schedule
Members join weekly meetings on gather.town to share their progress and gain peer feedback.
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Outside of weekly meetings, members are expected to dedicate 5-10 hours/week developing their work.
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Students are active cohort members for one academic semester, but collaborations are encouraged to extend beyond that time frame.
Professional Guidance
Every other week, guest speakers join to provide insights into relevant topics, including:
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Academic journal and popular press submission procedures
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IRB protocols
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501(c)3 filings
Additional topics are selected based on Lab members' needs.
End Product
Teams pursuing research are expected to leave the Lab with a working paper for journal submission and a prepared conference style presentation.
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Teams pursuing advocacy/program development are expected to leave the Lab having launched their program and with an elevator pitch style presentation.
Meet The Coordination Team
Melissa Gutwein
Melissa Gutwein is a MA candidate studying education policy and data analysis at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is primarily interested in racial and socioeconomic desegregation, as well as the ways in which social policies can be examined by their educational implications.
Tarra Meschi
Tarra Meschi is a recent MA graduate, having studied law and education policy at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is interested in the intersection of civics and politics in K-12 education, finding that issues that exist within our society can be attributed to the way we prepare our students as they embark into full and active citizenship.
Cesar J. Plascenia
Cesar Plascencia is a MA candidate studying law and education policy at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is primarily interested in social movement unionism in education as an avenue to advance progressive policy.
Amanda Glover
Amanda Glover is a MA candidate studying education policy and data analysis at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is interested in rural education and poverty challenges and the implementation of education technology.
Erika
Yagi
Erika Yagi is a PhD candidate studying Social Science and Comparative Education at UCLA. Her research field is Third Culture Kid (TCK) home-language retention in the context of learning barriers. TCKs are persons who grow up outside of their parents' cultural environment(s). Erika identifies as a TCK herself as she has an American father, a Japanese mother, and spent her formative school years in Egypt and Kenya.
MaKaila Knight
MaKaila Knight-Allder is a MA candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University master’s holder of Higher Education Administration. She focuses primarily on the ways that policies and practices intertwine to promote student postsecondary achievement.
Hankyeong Kim
Hankyeong Kim is a MA candidate studying public administration at City College New York. She is interested in immigrant integration education policies, including refugee integration education policies.
Shanelle Gabriel
Shanelle Gabriel is a MA candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University. As a director at a leading poetry non-profit and as a poet/singer herself, Shanelle's interests include creating dynamic programming and curriculum that supports student voice. She is interested in the ways classroom language and the arts can encourage learners and socio-emotional development.
Theja Pamarthy
Theja Pamarthy is a MPA candidate at New York University, specializing in Public Policy Analysis. She is interested in studying the intersection of economics and international education policy for improving social mobility.
Mike Newman
Mike Newman is a MA candidate studying Education Policy at Teachers College, Columbia University. His research interests include the effect of two year allied health programs on social mobility and fostering health education in low physician density countries.