Meet members of the Institute’s Urban Research Corps. The URC is a research incubator that produces relevant insights about the fundamental processes driving urban change and develops tools to help build more sustainable, equitable, and connected cities. URC participants develop, test and deploy computational methods and design scalable tools to accelerate the practice of sustainable urban development at the local and global scales.

Claire Boyd
Research Engineer
Claire is a graduate student at UChicago’s Masters in Computational Analysis and Public Policy Program (MSCAPP) at the Harris School of Public Policy. She has worked as a data science intern at both the NYC Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation and the Cook County Assessor’s Office, working alongside city agencies to support data-driven policymaking. Before starting at Harris, Claire worked at the Urban Institute for four years, leaving as a research associate at the Racial Equity Analytics Lab (REAL) where she led projects that explore how philanthropic and public sector leaders can center equity in their programs and policies.

Divij Sinha
Research Engineer

Monica Nimmagadda
Research Engineer
Monica Nimmagadda is a graduate student in the Computational Analysis and Public Policy (CAPP) program at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. Prior to graduate school, Monica worked for the city of Baltimore as special assistant to the housing commissioner and, most recently, data lead for the mayor’s innovation team where she led quantitative research for the implementation of free public wi-fi in the city. Monica holds a B.A. in computer science and environmental studies from Amherst College.

Kristan Karinen
Communications Research Assistant
Kristan Wong Karinen is an MPP candidate at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. She worked as a Communications Specialist for the Engineers and Scientists of California, Local 20, before coming to graduate school. In that role, she was responsible for developing strategic communications to support bargaining and representation for the union’s 8,500 represented professional workers. She was also previously the Executive Assistant for IFPTE Local 21, a public sector labor union in San Francisco, CA, and prior to that, worked as a K-12 teaching assistant in France and the U.S. Kristan holds a B.S. in Public Policy from Oregon State University and a B.A. in French from University of Illinois at Chicago.