Sophia Hwang is a doctoral candidate and IES-PIRT fellow in the Psychology and Social Intervention Program (Department of Applied Psychology) at NYU Steinhardt. As a former high school science teacher, Sophia’s research interests lie at the intersection of education and mental health. Sophia aims to conduct policy-relevant research that improves academic and social-emotional outcomes for urban students, learning contexts both in and out of school, and educator professional development. Currently, as part of a long-standing research-practice partnership with a local nonprofit organization, Sophia studies best practices in the afterschool setting. This includes the usage of social network analyses to examine changes in peer relations over time and qualitative methods to understand the experiences of the afterschool workforce. Additionally, Sophia’s research leverages large-scale national datasets and quasi-experimental methods to generate causal estimates about the influence of educational practices and supportive relationships on adolescent outcomes. She has published research in the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, and Behavioral Medicine. Sophia earned her bachelors from Stanford University and masters from the University of Pennsylvania.