Hadeer Akram Al-Ani, Ph.D., Assistant Clinical Professor of Public Health Sciences, UC Davis School of Medicine

Raquel Aldana, J.D., Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law (Co-Principal Investigator) 

Claudia Patricia Escobar, Ph.D., Philosophy of Education, UC Davis School of Education

Satinder Gill, Psy.D.
Dr. Gill is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in culturally responsive, evidence based interventions for trauma related disorders. She provides diagnostic psychological assessments, psychotherapy, coaching/training, and violence risk assessment consultations through her private practice. She supervises pre-and-post doctoral psychology trainees and provides training to medical residents, fellows and licensed mental health clinicians in implementing evidence based interventions with marginalized populations, addressing social determinants of health and feminist conceptualizations of trauma, health and wellbeing. Dr. Gill is currently the Clinical Director of the Academic and Staff Assistance Program at UC Davis and has worked to provide training in suicide risk assessment and vicarious trauma to legal professionals and students on campus.

Sharon Howard, Ph.D.
Dr. Howard is a clinical and forensic psychologist in private practice in the Sacramento region. The bulk of her practice involves pre-trial criminal forensic evaluations for adults and juveniles. She has been providing immigration forensic evaluations for approximately five years. She is passionate about educating psychologists about the role they can play in immigration proceedings in ways that are ethical, research based, and culturally appropriate.

Patrick Marius Koga, M.D., M.P.H., Professor of Psychiatry, Public Health Sciences; Director, Refugee Health Research (Co-Principal Investigator)
Dr. Koga’s research interests include: mental health consequences of international population movements; transnational, translational action research in mental health disparities in refugees and immigrants; disaster mental health and PTSD in war refugees, victims of terrorism, US veterans and immigrant foreign veterans.

Cristopher Ruiz Martinez
Cristopher is an undergraduate student at UC Davis double majoring in Communication and International Relations (expected 2022). He is highly interested in the role that civics and legislation play in ensuring the rights and protections of immigrant communities in the United States. Cristopher currently volunteers with Paper Airplanes as an ESL tutor for Syrian refugees and other conflict-affected individuals abroad. Additionally, he holds a research assistantship with Professor Wojcieszak in the Department of Communication analyzing political polarization and media habits.

Thomas O’Donnell, Ph.D. twodonnell@ucdavis.edu
Tom is an analyst at UC Davis in the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. He received his Ph.D. in history from UC Davis in 2018 under the guidance of Dr. Lisa G. Materson and Dr. Ellen Hartigan-O’Connor. His research focused on women and gender in American history; his dissertation, “Resisting Reform: San Francisco Vice in the Progressive Era” examines the role of working women that pushed back against the efforts by reformers to limit their economic opportunities and autonomy. Tom manages the website for the “Compassion in Immigration” team.

Caroline Perris
Caroline is a JD Candidate at UC Davis School of Law. Prior to law school, she worked as a paralegal with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid where she assisted asylum-seekers in family and adult detention centers as part of the Dilley Pro Bono Project and Laredo Project. Her primary areas of interest are immigration and labor and employment law.

Alea Corin Skwara, MA
Alea is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Psychology at UC Davis. She specializes in cognitive neuroscience. Her research focuses on compassion and responses to suffering, with a special interest in the basic psychological and social factors that support adaptive engagement with suffering. She brings over a decade of teaching and research experience in psychology and neuroscience, scientific training in study design and statistical analysis, and a professional background in public relations and performance studies.

Carmen C. Velázquez, Ph.D.
Dr. Velázquez is a licensed clinical neuropsychologist with experience in forensics. She is an expert in cross-cultural issues and a Spanish-Speaking clinician with experience in immigration and disenfranchised individuals. She also provides consultation to clinicians and researchers regarding pertinent immigration, trauma, cultural, and linguistic concerns.