Join us to learn from current and former PhD students about what their work experiences looked like between undergrad and graduate work, why they decided to go back to school, how they figured out what to go back to school for, and what being a graduate student is like. We will be joined by Garrett Baker, a joint PhD student in public policy and sociology, and Gayane Baziyants, currently pursuing a joint PhD in public policy and psychology. Between them, they have work experience at RAND, Save the Children, Child Trends, Franklin Porter Graham, and working internationally in child and community development.
Garrett Baker is a third-year Ph.D. student in the joint program in public policy and sociology at Duke. His research centers on families, social inequality, and barriers to opportunity, with a particular focus on the criminal justice, child welfare, and education systems. Currently, he is working on a number of projects related to the consequences of family member incarceration. Prior to starting his PhD, Baker was a policy analyst at RAND. He majored in sociology and history at Wake Forest University and received his MSEd from the University of Pennsylvania.
Gayane Baziyants is a joint Ph.D. student of public policy and psychology & neuroscience. At Duke, she is examining the impacts of child and family policies. Specifically, Baziyants is researching ways of supporting children’s development and overall family well-being. Baziyants received her bachelor’s degree in education and international studies from UNC- Chapel Hill in 2017. Before matriculating at Duke, she worked as a research analyst at Child Trends. In this role, she conducted national, state, and community level research analyzing the impact of various early childhood policies and programs. She engaged in study design to address specific research questions, collected and analyzed quantitative and qualitative data, and produced written reports to share findings with communities, states, and national stakeholders.
This speaker series is for Duke students who want to learn more about careers in child and family policy. Meetings are designed to help students explore the wide range of job opportunities and careers available in the field of child and family policy while creating a network of students who share their professional interests.