Meet the Team
The Rhode Island Survey Initiative is led by an interdisciplinary team of faculty and students from multiple departments at URI. The team identifies key issues, formulates survey questions, and analyzes results.
Ying Xiong
Assistant Professor
Public Relations
Prior to joining URI, Ying worked in Adam Brown Social Media Command Center at the University of Tennessee offering training opportunities to students, faculty, and staff. She also worked in the Media Effect Lab at the University of Oklahoma for eye tracking, Galvanic Skin Response research, and health communication studies.
Ying has outstanding teaching performance. She has taught Public Relations Research Methods, Public Relations Campaigns, and Introduction to Event Management.
read moreAshlea Rundlett
Assistant Professor
Political Sciences
Ashlea Rundlett is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island, where she teaches courses on democratic backsliding, research methods, and Latin American politics. Her research on democratic governance, corruption, and political participation has been published in leading journals, including the American Political Science Review. She is co-author of the forthcoming book Science and the Study of Human Rights (SUNY Press), which uses data-driven analysis to explore global rights protections. She is also active in civic engagement on campus, including co-organizing the 2024 URI Honors Colloquium, “Democracy in Peril.” She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
read more
Julie C. Keller
Director, Social Science Institute for Research, Education, and Policy (SSIREP)
Associate Professor
Sociology
Julie C. Keller is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Rhode Island. She earned her doctorate in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013 and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in environmental sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining the faculty at URI, Keller was a visiting assistant professor and Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Oberlin College in Ohio.
Keller’s research and teaching interests include transnational migration from Latin America, rural studies, new immigrant destinations, gender and sexuality. A major line of research examines the working conditions of dairy workers in the U.S. Her new book, Milking in the Shadows: Migrants and Mobility in America’s Dairyland, is now available at Rutgers University Press. Listen to Dr. Keller discussing her book on Wisconsin Public Radio.
read more
The Rhode Island Survey Initiative is a collaboration between the Harrington School of Communication and Media; Social Science Institute for Research, Education, and Policy; Department of Political Science; and College of Arts and Sciences.