Jessica Shaw
Principal Investigator
Jessica is a community psychologist, with specializations in evaluation, and organizational change and development. Her research focuses on improving within and between system responses to sexual assault by relying on community partnerships to facilitate empirically-informed, sustainable change. Her work has been funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women; U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice; Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority; and W.T. Grant Foundation. She has been invited to present her research at the White House and has served as a subject matter expert on several national committees focused on improving system responses to sexual assault. Prior to joining the Community and Applied Developmental Psychology program in the Psychology Department at UIC, Jess was an assistant professor in the Boston College School of Social Work, and a visiting fellow with the National Institute of Justice.
Alyssa Schramm
Research Associate
Alyssa (they/them) is a doctoral student in the Community and Applied Developmental Psychology program at University of Illinois Chicago. They earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where they completed a thesis exploring gender minority stress experiences among a nationwide sample of transgender and gender nonconforming adults. While at UIUC, Alyssa worked extensively at the Women’s Resources Center (WRC), an office that specializes in sexual violence prevention and response, as well as gender equity efforts. At the WRC, Alyssa taught sexual violence prevention workshops to first-year undergraduate students, developed a curriculum on healthy boundaries, and designed a feedback survey to better understand campus perceptions of the WRC. Alyssa is excited to be working under Dr. Jessica Shaw and alongside a team that shares their values in approaching this work. They are eager to contribute to projects that collaborate with communities to improve system-level responses to violence. Alyssa’s research interests focus on strengthening violence prevention efforts, improving how systems and communities support survivors, and better understanding the unique experiences and needs of transgender and genderqueer survivors.
Ayla Brescia
Research Associate
Ayla completed a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Communication Studies from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a Master’s degree in Social Work at Columbia University focusing on practice and programming with children, youth, and families. Ayla worked at a high school in New York City and ran an internship program that taught students how to barista at the café that was located inside the school. Ayla is a doctoral student in the Community and Applied Developmental Program at UIC working with Dr. Jessica Shaw and is excited at the opportunity to work on projects that center survivors and aim to not only improve care to survivors, but end gender-based violence. Ayla is invested in abolishing punitive and harmful systems and in building communities that center care, support, and compassion. Ayla’s research interests are centered on examining the impact of mandatory reporting on survivors of childhood sexual abuse and learning what survivors envision care to look like for young people who experience sexual violence. Ayla believes strongly in supporting the autonomy of young people in their disclosure of sexual abuse and believes that they should have choice over their own futures and decision-making process.
Leena Bowman
Research Associate
Leena is a doctoral student in the Community and Applied Developmental Psychology program at the University of Illinois, Chicago. She has bachelor’s degrees in Criminology and Psychological Science from the University of California, Irvine, and received a master’s degree in Psychological Research from California State University, Long Beach. Leena is focused on studying interpersonal violence and the systems and social norms that tolerate and promote abusive relationships and is passionate about survivor-oriented and trauma-informed research and practice. She worked as a Child Advocate with the Child Abuse Services Team in Orange County, CA, and has co-developed and facilitated various prevention education programs for high school and college students. She intends to continue her pursuit of feminist, decolonial, and social justice-oriented research to prevent violence and abuse and promote safety and healthy relationships through program evaluation and policy.
Nyxel Camarena
Research Associate
Nyxel is a doctoral student in the Community Prevention and Research Program at the University of Illinois Chicago. Prior to joining the graduate program at UIC, she worked as a Post Baccalaureate Teaching Fellow at UIC and interned at the YWCA as a medical and legal advocate for survivors of sexual assault.
Her research interests include understanding how community responses to male survivors of sexual and domestic violence affect their decisions to disclose their experiences to loved ones. Nyxel is passionate about getting rid of the stigma around speaking about gender-based violence, especially with male survivors.
Alumni Team Members
Ayla Shakir
Ayla joined the Gender Justice Initiative as an undergraduate research assistant while earning her Bachelor’s degree in Applied Psychology with a minor in Business Administration from UIC. During her time with the team, she contributed to research focused on improving healthcare and system responses to survivors of sexual violence. She also supported an additional research project that helped parents navigate the process of obtaining Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for their children. Ayla later served as a high school long-term substitute teacher for Chicago Public Schools, rotating between schools serving predominantly Spanish-speaking communities and students with specialized educational needs. After graduating, she completed a corporate human resources internship focused on improving the employee experience and organizing workplace resources. This experience strengthened her interest in applying psychology to understand how organizations can build systems that help people feel informed, supported, and connected. She hopes to continue pursuing people-centered work that allows her to advocate for others, support young adults, and apply her passion for psychology in meaningful ways.
Caroline Bailey
Caroline first joined the GJI team in 2018 when getting a MSW at Boston College and continued working on the GJI team while completing a PhD in Community and Prevention Psychology at UIC. Since graduating with a PhD and leaving the GJI team, Caroline landed their dream job at the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) in the Center for Victim Studies where they work as a full-time Research Scientist providing training and technical assistance to domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking service providers as well as conducting research around victimization and system responses to gender-based violence in Illinois
Mandi Urbizo-Haukjaer
Dr. Mandi Urbizo-Haukjaer earned her Ph.D. in Community Psychology from UIC, with a minor in Quantitative Statistics. As a research associate with the Gender Justice Initiative, she contributed to research evaluating sexual violence response initiatives, including projects examining Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) programs, TeleSANE implementation, and services for adolescent survivors of sexual assault. Her research focuses on improving systems’ responses to survivors of sexual violence through quantitative methods, program evaluation, and policy analysis. Her broader interests include sexual assault kit reform, criminal legal system responses to sexual violence, and evidence-based policies that promote survivor-centered justice.