NCID-1298
Melissa Abad
Research Fellow
VMWare Women's Leadership Innovation Lab at Stanford University
Education/Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Sociology (University of Illinois at Chicago)
About
Melissa, a Chicago native, is a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. After receiving a scholarship to attend Deerfield Academy, a New England boarding school, she returned to the Chicago area and attended Northwestern University, where she majored in sociology. It was her student involved in both schools that sparked her interest in race relations. The volunteer work she did between 2006 and 2009 inspired to her to return to school to investigate the challenges suburban Latino immigrants faced. At the University of Chicago, she worked with Mario Small on a masters that was a historical analysis of Luis Gutierrez's first congressional election. She immediately enrolled at the University of Chicago the fall after her she completed the masters to work on the NSF funded project "New Tensions in an Old Gateway."
Current Work
Melissa is examining the networks of nonprofit staff who work in suburban immigrant-serving nonprofits. By focusing on the experience of staff within distinct organizational forms (private, government, and ethnic/ community based) to examine how Latina entrepreneurs manage relations with the local white power elite and white coworkers, this project is distinct from most other studies on immigrant organizations. Her research interests include migration to the US, new immigrant destinations, immigration organizations, and the intersection of race, class and gender.
Research Area Keyword(s)
class, Migration, organizations, race, US Latinos