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Lauren Rivera

@larivera.bsky.social
1.7K followers 399 following 50 posts

Sociologist at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management studying gatekeeping and inequalities in organizations. Author of Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs. www.laurenarivera.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Long live halloumi
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Spaceballs is the BEST
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Congratulations!
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Thank you so much for sharing this!
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Congratulations! I look forward to reading.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Delighted to be in Springfield today speaking with Illinois legislators on behalf of the Governor's Advisory Council on the Education of Children with Disabilities.
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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 25/01/2026
Snowed in? As long as you've still got power or cell service, it's a great time to send some emails or make some calls.
Script from 5calls:

Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent from [CITY, ZIP].

[IF CALLING SENATE]: I’m calling to ask that [REP/SEN NAME] push to defund ICE by opposing any appropriations bill that maintains ICE funding and supporting legislation that claws back the $75 billion ICE slush fund created by H.R. 1 last year. This lawless agency is violently attacking and killing immigrants and citizens around the country and must be defunded and dissolved for good.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

IF LEAVING VOICEMAIL: Please leave your full street address to ensure your call is tallied.
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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 30/12/2025
They're chipping away at voting rights-- this time, by going after people who procrastinate when voting by mail.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
If you are looking to include sociological work on disability discrimination in education, linking two papers (one looking at elite private schools, the other public schools): journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
journals.sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
My 10 YO loudly boos them Princess-Bride-style here in Chicago
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Wait, aren't we already there yet? ;-)
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
Thank you for speaking up, Dr. Gunter. I have a medically complex child; RSV is the #1 virus that wrecks havoc on our kiddos in childhood, resulting in prolonged hospital stays and even death. These therapies are literal lifelines for young children, and it is unconscionable to remove access.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Hmmm... many of these are related service providers who provide dedicated minutes to children with IEPs in public schools under the IDEA. What is the implication for special education and educational access for children with disabilities, under an already gutted IDEA compliance regime?
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
My partner's employer added a $90/mo employed spouse penalty (on top of another $200/mo hike) for employees with working spouses who enroll in his (rather than spouse's) plan. It penalizes dual career couples and those with preexisting conditions who need decent coverage. It is a healthcare company.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Thank you for the shoutout, Jen!
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Reposted by Lauren Rivera
Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
If you haven't read Estela Diaz and Lauren Rivera's excellent paper on how private schools manage kids with disabilities, you're missing out.
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Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
LMM framing is that parents will choose schools for their children. That is absolutely false. Private schools will choose their kids, based on criteria that would mangle your brain. Trust me, I've read hundreds of private school applications. Mind blowing stuff.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
100 percent. And they explicitly exclude children they believe are neurodivergent or have any type of disability. urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...
urldefense.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Congratulations!!
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
The monitor or the espresso? ;-)
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
And private schools can (and do) refuse to educated disabled or neurodivergent children
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 28/04/2025
Deaths from heart disease down 75%, that’s NIH. Deaths from stroke down 75%, that’s NIH. HIV/AIDS no longer a death sentence, that’s NIH. 99% of FDA approved drugs in the last decade, that’s NIH. Please show this video to anyone who doesn’t understand why the NIH is so important.
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C.H. Romatowski @chromatowski.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
This is incredibly cool: if you search for a condition that’s affected your family, the site returns stats on how much NIH has done for that disease, *and* a contact form for reaching out to tell your Members of Congress why you want to see them defend NIH. Pass it on!
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Ridley @rid-ley.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Guys, I love all of you, but the answer to RFK, Jr. is not that autistic adults hold jobs, pay taxes, and get laid, it's that everyone deserves to live even if they can't work, pay taxes, or get laid.
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Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 10/04/2025
Number of people who go bankrupt every year because of medical bills or illness-related work loss: Australia 0 Canada 0 Denmark 0 Finland 0 France 0 Germany 0 Iceland 0 Ireland 0 Italy 0 Japan 0 Netherlands 0 Norway 0 Portugal 0 Spain 0 Sweden 0 UK 0 United States 530,000 There’s a lesson there.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Sharing an ungated version of a paper I recently published on private school early childhood admissions urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...
urldefense.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Thank you so much for the shoutout @katemcnamara.bsky.social!
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Congratulations! Looking forward to reading!!
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
journals.sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
While elite private schools do not (yet) require biomedical specimens as part of their assessments, their early childhood admissions practices—which essentialize merit and present some children’s bodies and minds as more or less intrinsically wired for success—share some concerning similarities.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
13 years ago @npr.org ran a satire for April Fools announcing that an elite NYC preschool had begun to require prenatal DNA samples as part of its application process. Instead of backlash, the piece inspired affluent parents to inquire from their obstetricians where they could obtain such samples.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
We argue that these schools' admissions practices represent a case of essentializing merit, in which gatekeepers construct merit as an intrinsic rather than achieved property of individuals, an approach that is gaining traction in other elite contexts, but has troubling implications for disability.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
Prior work has discussed how in every era, elite private schools maintain high status by identifying an outgroup against which they define themselves; our research suggests that, at least in the context of early childhood programs, disabled children are that contemporary outgroup.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
Seeking metrics they believed could not be “gamed” by affluent parents, they turned inward, looking for markers they believed were intrinsic markers of children’s underlying worth. But in doing so, they espoused evaluative logics that bear a striking resemblance to ideas from the eugenics movement.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
Why did they do this? In a highly competitive admissions process, they believed screening on disability status was a fair and legitimate way of evaluating children who were too young to have established academic or extracurricular records to evaluate.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
How do the most elite US private schools, which serve as Ivy League feeders, select their youngest members? In a new ASR article w/ @estelabdiaz.bsky.social, we show that schools explicitly design their early childhood admissions practices to identify—and exclude—disabled or neurodivergent children🧵
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Thank you for writing this important piece!
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Ron Lieber @ronlieber.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
I will never stop trying to get people to care about Medicaid. And if you're on it -- or are close to someone who is (and LOTS of more affluent people do) -- please help. My column for the weekend. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/y...
nytimes.com
Medicaid Is a Middle-Class Benefit. Here’s What to Know.
If you have a parent short on savings, a disabled adult child or a minor with special needs, Medicaid may be your backstop. Plenty of people are unaware.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
For everyone following this thread, check out this great piece by @jannaherron.bsky.social finance.yahoo.com/news/medicai...
finance.yahoo.com
Medicaid goes by many names. Will Americans realize if it gets cut?
States, which administer federal Medicaid funds, often change the name of the program to get more people to sign up. Studies find this causes confusion about who benefits from the program.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
@jannaherron.bsky.social thank you so much for writing this important piece!
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Janna Herron @jannaherron.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
As Medicaid cuts become a possibility, it's key to understand the scope of the program and its many names. H/t to @jessicacalarco.bsky.social and @larivera.bsky.social for the idea and to Melissa Hafner at @airinforms.bsky.social for further context. finance.yahoo.com/news/medicai...
finance.yahoo.com
Medicaid goes by many names. Will Americans realize if it gets cut?
States, which administer federal Medicaid funds, often change the name of the program to get more people to sign up. Studies find this causes confusion about who benefits from the program.
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Thank you for this! My understanding is MinnesotaCare does receive Medicaid funds (www.cms.gov/newsroom/pre...)
cms.gov
Biden-Harris Administration Extends Millions in Funding to Minnesota for MinnesotaCare, its Basic Health Program, Key Connection to Coverage Supported by American Rescue Plan | CMS
Thanks to an updated formula for calculating federal payments, Minnesota will receive an estimated $100 million in additional funding for MinnesotaCare in 2022, as well as added funds for 2020 and 202...
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Washington: Apple Health Washington D.C. : Healthy Families West Virginia : Medicaid Wisconsin: Forward Health, BadgerCare Wyoming: Equality Care Thank you @lisalightner.bsky.social and A Day in Our Shoes for this list
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Oklahoma: SoonerCare Oregon: Oregon Health Plan (OHP) Pennsylvania: Medical Assistance (MA) Rhode Island: RI Medical Assistance Program South Carolina: Healthy Connections South Dakota: Medicaid Tennessee: TennCare Texas: STAR+PLUS Utah: Medicaid Vermont: Green Mountain Care Virginia: Cardinal Care
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Nevada: Medicaid New Hampshire: NH Medicaid, Medical Assistance New Jersey: NJ FamilyCare New Mexico: Centennial Care, Medical Assistance New York: Medicaid Managed Care North Carolina: Division of Health Benefits (DHB), Medicaid North Dakota: North Dakota Medicaid Expansion Program Ohio: Medicaid
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Massachusetts: MassHealth Michigan: Medical Assistance or MA Minnesota: Medical Assistance (MA), MinnesotaCare Mississippi: Mississippi Coordinated Access Network (MississippiCAN) Missouri: MO HealthNet Montana: Medicaid Nebraska: ACCESSNebraska, Nebraska Medical Assistance Program (NMAP)
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Indiana: Hoosier Healthwise, Hoosier Care Connect, M.E.D. Works, Health Indiana Plan (HIP), Traditional Medicaid Iowa: IA Health Link Kansas: KanCare Medical Assistance Program Kentucky: Medicaid Louisiana: Bayou Health, Healthy Louisiana Maine: MaineCare Maryland: Medical Assistance
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Florida: Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Program (SMMC), Managed Medical Assistance (MMA) Program, Long-term Care (LTC) Program Georgia: Medicaid Hawaii : MedQuest Idaho: Medicaid Illinois: Medical Assistance Program, Allkids
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Lauren Rivera @larivera.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Alabama: Medicaid Alaska : DenaliCare Arizona: Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) Arkansas: Health Care California: Medi-Cal Colorado: Health First Colorado Connecticut: HuskyHealth, Husky C (for aged, blind or disabled persons) Delaware: Diamond State Health Plan (Plus)
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