Stephanie A. Pullés is a sociologist (PhD, University of California, Irvine) and quantitative social scientist with research experience in government, policy, industry, and academic settings. Her research employs advanced statistical methods, social network analysis, and demographic analysis to understand and predict social behavior. She is also skilled in mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) approaches and primary data collection techniques, such as survey methods and field research. She currently holds a position as a Statistician at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In her work, Pullés integrates theories of immigrant incorporation and economic sociology to investigate the mechanisms that enable or constrain mobility within Latinx communities. Her current research considers how social position and resource access interact to reproduce and maintain economic inequality among Latinx business owners across nativity and gender. Her work has also contributed to understandings of the gendered, multigenerational consequences of undocumented status within educational systems. Another strand of scholarship uses social network analysis to understand the social mechanisms within adolescents’ friendship networks that support positive academic and social development.
Pullés’ scholarship has been supported by numerous fellowships and grants. She has been recognized with the Society for the Study of Social Problems’ Racial/Ethnic Minority Graduate Fellowship, the University of California President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship, the Faculty Mentor Program Fellowship, the California Immigration Research Initiative Fellowship, and the Eugene Cota-Robles Diversity Fellowship. Her work has also received honorable recognition from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (2015) and the Ford Foundation’s Dissertation and Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Programs (2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019).
With a commitment to conducting quality and high impact research, she has gained applied skills through diverse roles in the federal government, policy think tanks, and industry. Over the past five years, she as held positions as an Economist at the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a Richard J. Riordan Researcher at the Public Policy Institute of California, a Statistician and Research Data Center Administrator at the U.S. Census Bureau, and a User Experience Researcher at Google.
At the University of California, Irvine, Pullés is a fellow of the Center for Networks and Relational Analysis, the Economic Self-Sufficiency Policy Research Institute, and the Center for Organizational Research. Dedicated to promoting inclusive excellence and supporting underrepresented students, she has served in numerous leadership positions, including through Graduate Division’s DECADE Council, the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity, and the Chicanx/Latinx Graduate Student Collective. She received a B.A. in Economics with a Statistics minor, a B.A. in Comparative Literature with an emphasis in critical theory, and an M.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Irvine.