Gabriel Butler is a 2009 graduate of University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned his B.A. in business economics with a minor in Japanese. In 2007-08 he studied abroad in Tokyo, Japan at International Christian University on a merit scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education. After graduating from UCLA, Gabriel moved to mainland China where he taught ESL for six years while studying Chinese in his free time before transitioning into an international high school program overseen by UCLA. Here he taught World History and served as a teaching aide for Economics courses. In summer 2020 Gabriel was a fellow in the American Economic Association Summer Program at Michigan State University, which introduced him to Research in Color. Gabriel’s main research interest is inequality, in particular its intersection with race. This stems from his personal experiences and family history. Gabriel intends to earn a PhD in Economics and pursue a career in research to contribute to the creation of public policy informed by empirical economic research, which enables people to overcome poverty and adverse economic outcomes, especially ones caused by global economic events and personal crises. He hopes to become an economics professor or public sector economist and government advisor.