Jessica
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
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
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
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
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
Abril
Abril is an alumna from the GJI research team and from the Boston College School of Social Work, where she received her doctorate. Currently, Abril works at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work as a tenured-track professor.
Alex
Alex joined the GJI research team as an undergraduate research assistant. Alex is an alumna from UIC and graduated with a Bachelor’s in English. Since then, she has earned her Paralegal Certification from Roosevelt University and is working towards a Master’s in Business Administration. Her hope is to enter the data analytics field and use her skills to keep people well-informed about social and political issues.
Anastasiya
After graduating with her Bachelor degree in Psychology, Anastasiya joined the GJI team as a research assistant. Since her time at UIC, Anastasiya has been working as a team lead in the field of benefits, where she has been enjoying applying her social science education and research skills.
Ayla
Ayla joined the GJI team as a research assistant while getting her Bachelor’s degree in Applied Psychology from UIC.
Bianka
Bianka joined the GJI team as a research assistant while getting her Bachelor’s degree from UIC. Since graduating, Bianka moved to Florida where she now works as a full-time parent raising two children and loving the difficult but rewarding work.
Caroline
Caroline is a doctoral student in the Community Prevention and Research Program at the University of Illinois Chicago and is currently working as a consultant with the Center for Justice Innovation. Prior to coming to UIC, Caroline graduated from Boston College School of Social Work as a clinically trained social worker. Caroline’s previous work includes being a Research Coordinator at UIC, a counselor at a domestic violence community agency, and a social work advocate and consultant in an Immigration Legal Clinic. Caroline is passionate about issues surrounding gender-based violence and social justice and believes that social change should be rooted in feminist and abolitionist principles and ideologies. Their research interests include community and system responses to sexual and domestic violence; violence intervention and prevention; and policy- and practice-informed research and evaluation.
Christine
Christine joined the GJI research team as an undergraduate research assistant and graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) with a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Psychology, along with double minors in Art and Sociology. Since graduation, Christine has transitioned into a role as a data analyst, where she continues to deepen her expertise in data science through ongoing learning and professional development.
Liz
Liz joined the GJI research team as an undergraduate research assistant. Since graduating from UIC in May 2025, Liz has been working as a Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) at the Cognition Behavior and Mindfulness (CBM) Clinic at UI Health, where she supports children with developmental and behavioral needs. She is also in the process of applying to graduate programs to pursue a Master of Social Work (MSW), with the goal of continuing work that aligns with social justice and mental health advocacy.
Mandi
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.
Maya
Maya joined the GJI team as an undergraduate research assistant. After graduating with their Bachelor’s degree in Applied Psychology from UIC, they transitioned to working on the GJI team as a research assistant. Since their time on the research team, Maya has been working as an animal caregiver and loving every second of it.
Sarah
Sarah joined the GJI team as a graduate research assistant Fall 2023 where she worked on the Examining the SANE and TeleSANE Patient Experience project. Since leaving the research team, Sarah has been working on her dissertation Cheating Disability: The Politics of Surviving Social Security Disability for her PhD in Criminology, Law & Justice.