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.
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Emily Lynch
Associate Teaching Professor
Political Sciences
Emily Lynch joined the Political Science Department at URI in Fall 2019. Her teaching and research interests include political psychology, public opinion, Rhode Island politics, Congress, and political communication. She has publications in Journal of Communication and Political Behavior. She served as an American Political Science Association (APSA) Congressional Fellow for Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in 2013-2014 and worked on education policy for the Senator.
Professor Lynch teaches undergraduate courses on American Politics, Rhode Island Politics, Public Opinion, and Gender and Politics.
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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.
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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.