Team

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Professor Ong has done research on the labor market status of minorities and immigrants, displaced high-tech workers, work and spatial/transportation mismatch, and environmental justice. He is currently engaged in several projects, including an analysis of the relationship between sustainability and equity, the racial wealth gap, and the role of urban structures on the reproduction of inequality.

Previous research projects have included studies of the impact of defense cuts on California’s once-dominant aerospace industry, the impact of immigration on the employment status of young African Americans, and the influence of car ownership and subsidized housing on welfare usage.

Dr. Ong is the Director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge and editor of AAPI Nexus, and has served as an advisor to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, and to the California Department of Social Services and the state Department of Employment Development, as well as the Wellness Foundation and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

He received a master’s in urban planning from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. in Economics, University of California, Berkeley. Along with his quantitative research, his professional practice includes teaching and applying visual forms of communication.

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Chhandara Pech is the Assistant Director at the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge. His expertise is in spatial and statistical analysis. He has conducted extensive research on neighborhood change, gentrification, residential segregation, wealth/income inequality, and the foreclosure crisis. He was the lead data analyst for the Los Angeles component of the gentrification and displacement project. Chhandara earned his Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning, BA in Political Science, and has a certification in Geographic Information Systems from UCLA.

Aaron Tae is a rising third-year undergraduate student at UCLA pursuing a degree in Data Theory. Born in South Korea, Aaron moved to Los Angeles, California when he was five years old and has lived there since. He has experience working with low-income status and immigrant students during his volunteer tenure at a small academy in Koreatown called E-PLEX, while also being a person of low-income status and an immigrant himself. He has a passion for data analysis, data science, and data in general. He is excited to utilize and apply what he is passionate about to contribute to CNK’s efforts in shedding light to how communities and neighborhoods of color are mistreated even in urban city planning processes.

Naya Lee is an undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in Political Science. She holds an interest in the subject of law and hopes to pursue a career in the legal field. She has a background in journalism, participating in the LA Vanguard publishing articles regarding social justice. She’s also interested in pursuing further research in topics surrounding politics including injustices in the American political system and environmental policy.

McKenna Giannos is a third year Environmental Science Major from Leesburg, Virginia pursuing minors in Geography/Environmental Studies and GIS & Technology at UCLA. She has an interest in pursuing spatial data research and using GIS to address complex social and environmental injustices. McKenna has participated in independent research studying the sustainability of native plant species on UCLA’s campus and hopes to continue working on environmental research and GIS in her future.

Bryzen Enzo Morales studies Public Affairs and Economics at UCLA. His academic and research interests lies in the intersection of  public policy and social welfare, specifically, in relation to poverty and inequality, social welfare and the social safety net, and community economic development among disadvantaged communities in developing countries and the United States. He also has a growing interest in using quasi-experimental methods to perform causal inference among various public programs and policies.

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Silvia Gonzalez (Jimenez) is a project director for community-based and environmental equity at the Luskin Center for Innovation. Previously, Silvia worked as the founding assistant director at the CNK. She continues to conduct research with CNK as the project manager for MovementHub.org and serves as an expert with the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Initiative. She has worked extensively, as a researcher and consultant with nonprofit, community-based, and government organizations on projects related to neighborhood change and gentrification, anti-displacement policies, environmental equity, and climate planning. Her research focuses on the implications of place and the urban spatial structure on socioeconomic inequality and environmental health.  She holds a BA in Geography/Environmental Studies and a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning with a focus on Economic Development from UCLA, and a PhD in Urban Planning also from UCLA.

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C. Aujean Lee is an assistant professor in Regional and City Planning at the University of Oklahoma. She received her PhD in Urban Planning from UCLA. Her work examines residential segregation and racial disparities in homeownership, community institutions, and wealth, with a focus on immigrant, Latino, and Asian communities. She also examines nonprofits in providing social protections to vulnerable communities in transitional or uncertain policy circumstances. Her work has been published in Housing Policy Debate, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

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Andre Comandon is a post-doctoral scholar at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. His research focuses on issues of segregation and housing in international comparative perspective. He recently worked with the Organization for Economic and Cooperation and Development and has written on Europe, China, Mexico, and South Africa. His most recent research focuses on segregation in the context of Los Angeles and the implications of  housing stress for segregation. Andre earned a M.A. in Political Science, a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning, and a PhD in Urban Planning from UCLA, and a B.S. in Economics and International Studies from the University of Oregon.
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