Staci Gusakova formerly served as a University of Michigan intern fellow with Ithaka S+R’s Educational Transformation team. Working together with James Ward, Staci conducted a mixed methods study investigating how decisions about debt are made during periods of crisis (like the Great Recession), and what institutional characteristics (e.g. institutional size, wealth, etc) contribute to higher rates of leverage. Staci is a PhD candidate in the psychology and women’s and gender studies programs at the University of Michigan. Her doctoral work highlights how social inequities effect people’s sexual and romantic lives. Her dissertation looks at how experiences of prejudice-related stress (e.g. discrimination) effect the well-being of interracial and same-race male couples.