James (right) is currently working in pursuit of his PhD in Sociology at UIUC with a focus in studying inequalities, specifically, poverty, food insecurity, and housing insecurity among US college students. His training includes heavy influences from demography, race and ethnicity studies, and statistical methods. He also has extensive experience with collegiate forensics as both a competitor and a coach, and helps to run a non-profit organization which offers rehabilitative transitional housing to people exiting facilities of incarceration.