Guangli Zhang, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor at the Brown School and the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis. He is an applied economist whose research lies at the intersection of public economics, labor economics, and household finance.
His work examines how public policies, income shocks, and institutional systems shape household financial well-being, access to opportunity, and economic mobility. His current research includes studies of cash transfers, public benefits and administrative burden, household credit and debt, financial inclusion, and the ways evaluation systems and algorithms can reinforce disparities in performance and opportunity.
Zhang uses experiments, quasi-experimental methods, and large-scale administrative, credit-report, survey, geospatial, and other alternative data. He collaborates with researchers, policymakers, and community partners to evaluate programs and translate complex data into policy-relevant evidence.
Before joining the Brown School faculty, Zhang was a postdoctoral fellow in finance at Saint Louis University. He earned his PhD in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Saras Chung is a social systems scientist with over two decades of experience as a youth development practitioner and system dynamics researcher. Her scholarly work examines and anticipates the side effects of policies and practices that are intended to foster well-being for adolescents in under-resourced communities.
She is currently a Research Associate Professor at the WashU Brown School of Social Work. She is the Director of the Social System Design Lab (SSDL).
Before joining the Brown School, Chung was the Executive Director of SKIP Designed and conducted community-based systems research with public schools and organizations serving youth in low-income communities. Over the past decade, she’s advised over $30 million in community investments through various philanthropic partners and provided consulting, system dynamics training and research services for Google, the Centers for Disease Control, HHS Office of Population Affairs, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and numerous school systems. Chung received her PhD and master’s in social work from Washington University in St. Louis and her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Her research agenda includes: 1) Adolescent well-being and academic growth in schools through teacher-focused systemic redesign and 2) Community-Based System Dynamics research to improve service delivery in schools and communities and 3) Child and adolescent social and emotional growth in schools.
Aytakin Huseynli’s research bridges political science and social policy, offering insights into family and child well-being outcomes. She examines how socio-political factors shape child and family well-being, with a particular focus on child wealth, health, education, and violence against children and family members. She also analyzes the effect of fossil fuel wealth on social development and how the resource curse impacts marginalized populations in fossil-extracting nations, where abundant wealth often hinders development. She proposes evidence-based solutions to improve child and family well-being, particularly feasible in contexts that lack the political will and accountability including countries that are rich in oil-gas-minerals. She collaborates with senior policymakers and global organizations to design and implement social policies.
Huseynli is a founder of the national association of social workers in Azerbaijan including social work profession and education. She was instrumental in social policies and services for disadvantaged children and families in Former Soviet Union nations.
She published in Child Abuse and Neglect, the British Journal of Social Work, Child Indicators Research, and Children and Youth Services Review. She serves on the Editorial Board of the journal International Social Work and International Journal of School Social Work. She is actively involved in global social development through UNICEF, the International Federation of Social Workers, the International Council on Social Welfare, the International Consortium on Social Development, and Social Services in the Context of Conflict Network.
Harmony Rhoades’ research is focused on health and well-being for underserved populations, in particular sexual and gender minority youth and those who have experienced homelessness and housing instability. Her work examines mental health, suicide prevention, social networks, HIV prevention and sexual health behavior, substance use and misuse, pet ownership, and structural factors that impact health. She is currently a co-Investigator on multiple NIH-funded studies exploring health and well-being among sexual and gender minority youth.
Rhoades has served on the Research Council of the National Alliance to End Homelessness and as an NIH Review Panel Member. She has published more than 90 peer-reviewed academic journal articles, including in Pediatrics, American Journal of Public Health, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, and AIDS and Behavior. She began her career in HIV prevention research as a pre-doctoral trainee in the UCLA Service Systems for Persons Living with HIV/AIDS Research Training Program; received the Mark Etzel Young Investigator Award from the UCLA Center for HIV Identification, Prevention and Treatment Services; and served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Southern California School of Social Work. She was on the research faculty for more than a decade at the USC School of Social Work, where she served as multi-PI, Co-Investigator, or key personnel on numerous NIH-funded research grants, projects funded by other agencies, and innovative pilot studies.
Yung Chun (he/him) is a Research Assistant Professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, the Director of Data Insight at the Center for Social Development, and Weidenbaum Center Research Fellow with Washington University’s Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy. His research focuses on how housing and education policies shape social and economic mobility, especially for families living in poverty and communities of color.
He studies how built environments and social systems interact to influence people’s life outcomes. His work includes evaluating the impacts of large-scale federal housing programs like the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative and analyzing education programs designed to help low-income students and adult learners succeed. He uses advanced statistical and spatial methods to answer real-world policy questions and collaborates closely with community organizations and national partners.
His current projects explore the effects of housing relocation, school choice, case management, and informal STEM training on family stability and upward mobility. He has also led major studies on racial disparities in housing instability during the COVID-19 pandemic, the long-term impacts of mortgage assistance programs, and how apprenticeship programs can improve well-being.
His research has informed public debates and policy decisions, including testimony before the U.S. Senate and the Maryland House of Delegates. His work has been cited by organizations such as the Brookings Institution and featured in public radio coverage.
Enola Proctor’s research is motivated by the question, how do we ensure that people receive the very best possible care? She has studied this question in a variety of social work, public health, and health care settings, ranging from hospitals to community agencies. She has contributed to the intellectual capital for the rapidly growing field of dissemination and implementation science, leading teams to distinguish, clearly define, develop taxonomies, and stimulate more systematic work to advance the conceptual, linguistic, and methodological clarity in the field.
Proctor’s research has been funded by the NIA, AHRQ, and the NIMH for 26 consecutive years. She directs the Implementation Research Institute, a training program in implementation science funded by the National Institute for Mental Health. She led the establishment of several university-wide centers and cores in implementation science, including the Center for Dissemination and Implementation for the Washington University Institute for Public Health and the Dissemination and Implementation Research Core for Washington University’s CTSA program.
Proctor’s awards include Washington University’s Arthur Compton Holly Distinguished Faculty Award, the Society for Social Work and Research’s Distinguished Research Award, and the American Public Health Association Stephen M. Banks Award for Outstanding Mentoring in mental health services.