Avriel Epps-Darling

Postdoctoral Student

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

A Los Angeles native, Avriel Epps-Darling graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. in Communication Studies and a minor in Education Studies from UCLA after graduating from high school at 15 years old. While on full academic scholarship, she was selected to be both a Ronald E. McNair Research Scholar and Wasserman Scholar. At UCLA, she led a digital-communication-focused research lab, and continued on to work as a quantitative and qualitative researcher in the Graduate School of Education’s The CHOICES Project. Her research garnered numerous awards and honors, including an invitation from the U.S. Department of Education to present my work for Congress in Washington D.C. and selection as a Predoctoral Ford Foundation Fellow.

Focusing her pre-academic career around the intersection of brand experiences & storytelling, digital media, and technology, her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, Vogue Magazine, Huffington Post, and Vice Magazine, among others. Although her professional experiences have spanned across multiple industries, one thing has remained true: she find fulfillment in leading diverse teams through envisioning and executing long-term, conceptual projects.

Today, as a PhD candidate at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, she seeks to make a meaningful impact through researching how online, machine learning-driven ecologies influence youth of color as they construct and affirm racialized and gendered identities.