Chie Togami

REU Program Coordinator, Graduate Research Assistant

Chie is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. Broadly speaking, her research spans environment, social movements, philanthropy, and gender. Her dissertation uses qualitative methods to examine the impact of foundation funding on the strategies and tactics of new climate change social movement organizations. In addition to her dissertation, she has researched and written about air quality, environmental justice, and epistemology in Western Pennsylvania. In 2021, she produced a limited series podcast about the social and environmental legacy of the U.S. Steel Corporation. More recently, she is a collaborator on a project examining the global environmental justice impacts of the Biden-Harris lead service line replacement initiative.

Rory Quinlan

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Rory is an undergraduate student at the University of Pittsburgh, dual majoring in economics and statistics. She currently supports the MPE Program as a research assistant, under Chie Togami and Dr. Fernando Tormos-Aponte. Her research interests include inequality and poverty economics. Rory will graduate Spring 2024.


Rachel Amanor

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Rachel Amanor is a Sophomore (rising Junior) at the University of Pittsburgh. She majors in Computational Social Science and minors in Linguistics. She currently supports the MPE program as a research assistant with Chie Togami and Dr. Fernando Tomas-Aponte. Recently, Rachel has worked with the Equity Impact Center to gain leadership skills, teamwork capabilities, and collaborative experiences. Her research interests include the social development of people and inequality. 

Tania Lucia Ramírez

Graduate Research Assistant

Tania Lucia is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a current fellow of the Bicentennial Generation Scholarship, granted by the government of Peru. Her research centers on the political economy of development and environmental change, and social movements with a focus on the Latin American region.